Large Scale Energy Storage

Lots of (new) construction yards use heavy-duty machinery and equipment, which are becoming more and more electric, like excavators. However, it is often very difficult or impossible to get a proper connection to the nearby electricity grid (if any) due to new regulations and net congestion. Until recently, only polluting and noisy aggregates were able to overcome this.

The large sized batteries of Arkimedes can be a very well fitting alternative for this problem as these batteries don’t produce any emissions, are silent and can be charged overnight with a ‘light’ connection to the grid and discharged to provide the required high power whenever it is needed. Arkimedes can also charge the batteries on site with their own electricity trucks if no connection to the electricity grid is available.

Grid operators must maintain a stable electricity grid. Implementing more and more non-continuous renewable electricity from solar systems and wind mills into the grid makes this a tough challenge. It is necessary to compensate for the intermittent behaviour of these renewable generations as this will affect the frequency of the grid greatly.

Batteries are an ideal technology to help stabilizing the grid as it can withdraw electricity from it (by charging) and provide the power back whenever needed within small time windows due to its fast response times.

The number of households with a PV system is already considerable and is still increasing strongly worldwide. The majority of the generated electricity is not consumed instantly, but is fed into the electricity grid to be used at a later stage. This introduces difficulties for grid operators and energy companies as they have to maintain a stable grid and adapt their electricity supply to this phenomenon. For this reason they are charging the PV owners penalties for the amount of kWh they inject into the grid.

The temporary excess of electricity could also be stored in-house with a home battery to prevent the penalty and becoming self-sufficient. A more cost-effective alternative is a ‘neighbourhood battery’ which is a locally stationed large scale battery that is shared among neighbours.

The connections between charging stations and the grid limit the charging speed and need to be heavy in order to supply an appropriate amount of power to electric vehicles. Net congestion problems are one of the main reasons why the maximum possible charging power of charging stations is frequently not achieved. This shortcoming can be easily solved by integrating an Arkimedes battery at these stations.

The grid connection can/will provide the base speed and the battery will raise this. Another feature is that the battery is able to charge whenever the electricity price is low in order to maximize profit.