With three 108-meter turbines, Giessenwind is one of the tallest wind farms in the Netherlands. The turbines collectively supply power to about 5,000 households. Since power generation from renewable sources such as wind fluctuates, the electricity grid must accommodate those fluctuations. Wim Meerkerk, owner of wind farm Giessenwind: "Battery storage systems are necessary to fit our ambitions with renewable energy into the Dutch electricity grid."

Total Solution

Alfen, provider of a wide range of products and services on the power grid, provided a total solution for this project, including the energy storage system of approximately 1 MWh, a transformer station and the grid connection. Andreas Plenk, responsible for global sales of energy storage systems at Alfen, said, "Eighty years of experience in the medium-voltage grid gives Alfen the ability to realize a total solution for customers. We are currently working on several projects in which our energy storage system, called TheBattery, is directly linked to renewable energy production. TheBattery balances supply and demand in energy, helping to avoid large infrastructure investments in the power grid. This reduces the burden on the grid and allows the energy generated to be sold at the most profitable times."

Use for energy trading

Scholt Energy Services - active in the business energy market in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany - will initially use the storage system for energy trading. Sander Drissen, Business Development Manager at Scholt Energy Services said, "This setup provides a sustainable foundation for the future and can be easily expanded where necessary. We are also looking at other locations and applications such as local grid stability."

Alfen delivered the system in May 2017 and it is currently generating the first results for C-Wind. Plenk: "With systems like this, we are preparing the Netherlands for the electricity system of the future: sustainable and reliable."