China’s First “Grid-Side Distributed Energy Battery Storage Station” Completes Successful Grid Connection

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On June 18th, 2018, Henan Power Grid’s 100 MW energy storage demonstration project—the Luoyang Huanglong station containerized battery storage project—completed its successful connection to the grid.  The project marks a critical step for grid-side distributed battery storage in China.  The project will provide Henan Power Grid with load shifting services and promote the use of renewable energy within the grid.  The project is the first grid-side 100 MW scale distributed battery storage demonstration in China.

The grid faces a number of challenges, including the rapid addition of renewable energy, ensuring safe operations, finding suitable peak shaving methods, and financing of new construction.  Large-scale battery storage provides response time in milliseconds, providing safe and speedy power support to the grid.  Battery storage also provides new strategies for peak shaving and limiting air pollution, and can increase the efficiency in which energy is utilized in a variety of ways.

The Henan Power Grid project has been led by the Pinggao Group (a subsidiary of China State Grid) with construction by Luoyang Power Supply company.  The project includes 16 substations in nine regions, including Luoyang and Xinyang.  The plan utilizes distributed deployment, modular design, independent connections, and centralized dispatch. 

Now that the project has successfully connected to the grid, Pinggao Group is expected to increase project construction speed to complete the remaining project components. The project is scheduled to be fully complete before the end of 2018.  Pinggao Group has in recent years been an active promoter of large-capacity battery storage technology and innovative business models.  The successful implementation of the Henan Grid project will be an important trial for the use of large-capacity distributed battery storage, and a significant contribution to the goals of the Guiding Opinions on Promoting Energy Storage Technology and Development.  The project creates a basis for commercialized applications and sustainability in the power grid, and is an important step for China in the advancement of the energy revolution and energy internet development.