Friday 24 March 2017

E.ON provides wind power to balance German grid

E.ON has joined a new initiative to use wind power to stabilise the German grid.

The energy firm said a 26MW wind farm it manages in Mecklenburg-Western Pommerania has been pre-qualified for balancing services by transmission system operator 50Hertz, part of a two-year pilot phase.

The electricity generated by the wind farm in Brandenburg will be incorporated into E.ON’s Virtual Power Plant, which has a total capacity of 3,800MW. It includes various renewable plants, including solar, as well as fossil fuel sources.

As part of the balancing services, E.ON will switch off wind farm production when asked by the grid operator if demand is low.

It states: “E.ON Connecting Energies will be one of the first companies to participate in this pilot phase. As E.ON already successfully offers balancing power from other generation units, the existing infrastructure could be used for the calculation and implementation of this innovative product.

"The marketing and control of the wind farm will run through E.ON’s Virtual Power Plant and therefore guarantee fault-free and secure operation.”

This week the UK's National Grid secured 312MW of turn-down demand side response (DSR) as part of its capacity auction.