Project is installed at a substation in Registro, São Paulo, operated by the company

11/29/2022

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Rui Chammas — Foto: Silvia Zamboni/Valor

Isa Cteep has put into operation the first large-scale battery power storage system in the Brazilian transmission system. The battery project is installed at a substation in Registro, São Paulo, also operated by the company.

The battery systems have 30 megawatts of power and are capable of delivering 60 megawatt-hours of energy for two hours to a region of up to 2 million people. The goal is for them to act during peak consumption periods on the Southern Coast of São Paulo during the summer, especially in the year-end holidays, ensuring additional supply.

In all, there are 10 containers with 180 racks of lithium batteries, which were imported from China, and occupy an area of nearly 5,000 square meters, equivalent to half of a soccer field. The executive director of projects, Dayron Urrego, and the company’s chief executive, Rui Chammas, said that the technology is expected to avoid interruptions in the power supply during load periods.

The system is planned to go into operation the moment Brazil’s national grid operator ONS gives the order. The company estimates that they will probably be used on average 12 times a year. The criterion for choosing the region was that studies pointed out that the southern coast of São Paulo has a power deficiency and should be supplied by a transmission line from the 2017 auction, which is not yet ready.

“During the summer, it is common to have a higher demand than the system can supply, so the batteries come in to supply the peaks of this demand, but they can also have other uses,” said Mr. Urrego. “The biggest peak is in the summer because of the use of air-conditioning, besides moments like Christmas and New Year’s Eve.”

Storage systems are considered the next technological frontier in the energy transition, because they play the role of guarantee of supply since they have characteristics – such as inertia, frequency, and voltage controllers – necessary for the operation of the system with due security and resilience.

In addition, the insertion of intermittent renewable generation, such as solar and wind, which cannot be stored in their original forms, has generated a series of operational complexities for the electric system.

This instability creates a challenge for the ONS, which orchestrates the mix of all sources to meet real-time demand, which also varies. Batteries are important because their command is in human hands and does not depend on the sun, wind, and rain.

“Energy transition brings opportunities and responsibility to make intermittent renewable energy be absorbed in the best possible way. We who invested in the first digital stations for better control of the equipment now get into batteries and think about using this technology and flow control,” said Mr. Chammas.

The amount invested approved by the Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency (Aneel) was R$146 million and is part of a total disbursement for reinforcement and improvement, which in the third quarter of this year reached R$471 million.

As a result, the Colombian company will have allowed annual revenues (RAP) of R$27 million. Mr. Chammas said that the regulator’s determination was that they should be put in place before the beginning of the summer – which in Brazil starts on December 21 – so that they would be entitled to the investment.

“Aneel authorized us to do the project. In one year, we did the engineering project, acquired the batteries from China, prepared the land, installed the construction, and energized it,” he said.

Because it is a disruptive technology, this topic still has no regulation at Aneel. Mr. Chammas considers it fortunate that the process fell under the rapporteurship of the agency’s director Sandoval Feitosa, who advocated the project’s approval.

The next reserve power auction is expected to be neutral regarding the technology to be adopted. Until now, these auctions were oriented toward gas-fired thermal generation. “If this is confirmed, we will have a great opportunity,” the CEO said.

*By Robson Rodrigues — São Paulo

Source: Valor International

https://valorinternational.globo.com/