This is a guest post by Walter Alnrecht. The guest post reflects the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the opinion of the VDE.
How regulatory challenges can be turned into opportunities
Electricity is being generated increasingly from sustainable sources – for example, wind turbines, photovoltaics and hydropower. This fact implies enormous challenges for the existing energy system.
The production of electricity in conventional power plants, based on fossil fuels, can be adapted to the electricity consumption – by throttling or ramping up the generators. In addition, conventional power plants provide necessary system services in the energy system, such as the required short-circuit and reactive power. This also applies to nuclear and coal-fired power plants. The central arrangement of largescale power plants allows control to be easily implemented.
However, power generation from renewable energies requires new solutions, since RE power plants can at best only be controlled to a limited extent, especially not at the required speed.
This is where energy storage comes in. Battery storage in particular enables rapid control of charging and discharging processes and can also ensure the necessary system services. In so doing, battery storage compensates for the shortcomings of the RE power plants.
Hydroelectric power go! Rain am Lech focuses on battery storage
Some laws and regulations still refer to the traditional energy system with conventional decentralized large-scale power plants, although new rules for the new energy system are urgently needed. In some cases, there is a lack of reliability and consistency due to the many changes – issues that inhibit the further development of the energy system, slow down the energy turnaround and produce economic disadvantages.
The current situation also poses considerable problems for the use of battery storage systems. For example, the currently valid regulations force complex technical solutions with correspondingly high costs. The situation is further complicated by the fact that they have to be redeveloped repeatedly due to highly volatile legal conditions. The result is an uncontrollable economic risk for the companies involved. This needlessly slows down the energy transition. A new approach is called for.
In the case of technical regulations, the FNN shows how a reasonable approach can be taken: The Forum Netztechnik/Netzbetrieb (FNN) in the VDE supports the young technology in its progress, new developments are taken into account in the annually updated FNN Note Storage and are reliably available to all users for daily practice.
The legislature must react with flexibility
On the way to an optimal legal framework, flexibility is a key factor: Legislators should keep a constant eye on the further development of the energy system and quickly adapt regulations as soon as the need arises. This also applies to the regulations on initial subsidies, which should be constantly reviewed in terms of amount and duration and optimized at short notice if necessary, not least in order to streamline the almost unmanageable and overly complex subsidy catalog.
Pushing energy quantities: Well-intentioned, but unrealistic
One example is the linking of subsidies to energy quantities generated. System operators with multiple generation facilities must allocate each kilowatt-hour when different primary energy sources are used at different times.
In the case of self-consumption use and storage use, this leads to a mammoth task in terms of measurement technology. Billing is even more complicated. If different electricity consumers are added, the system operator is faced with a task that can no longer be solved.
Both subsidy incentives for renewable energies and the corresponding ordinances suffer from an excess of complexity. In principle, intervention should only take place if it is absolutely necessary from a regulatory point of view. It is up to the market to decide on the success of business models. Innovative approaches are thus given a chance. Conventional solutions will no longer be viable if they do not fit in with the times and the energy transition.
New battery storage business models: The market matters!
Business models for battery storage technology are also constantly changing. Due to a lack of economic viability, some concepts have not proven effective and have disappeared from the market. High costs played a part in this development.
However, the further development of the technology with higher performance at decreasing prices is always generating new ideas. Business models that combine smart metering systems with storage are conceivable, for example. Here, however, it remains to be seen how the smart metering system will develop beyond an application for pure energy quantity determination.
Perspectives are also opening up for the multiple use of storage systems. One example is battery storage in cars. During the idle times when the car is at the charging station, for example at the wallbox at home, the storage system can be used to balance electricity consumption in the household and electricity generation via photovoltaics. In parallel, the storage system can provide system services such as balancing power and short-circuit power. The profitability of storage systems can be significantly increased in the future through multiple use – factors that further improve the already promising prospects for this technology.
Author Information
Walter Albrecht (born 1971) is a master electrician and business economist (HWK) in the area of supply quality, cable fault location and connection and remuneration of generation plants at LEW.
Mr Albrecht has held various management positions and works as a freelance lecturer. He was chairman of the district installer committee for four years and author of the implementation manual for photovoltaic systems published by Forum-Verlag.
Since 2019, he has been Managing Director of Energiegemeinschaft LEW e. V. and Head of Municipal Management at Lechwerke AG.
He is also engaged in committee work in the Forum for Network Technology/Network Operation (FNN) in the VDE such as:
- Chairman of the Expert Network Storage
- VDI 4657 “Planning and Integration of Energy Storage Systems
- Member of the Dillingen District Energy and Climate Advisory Council
- Shareholder representative at the Energy and Environmental Centre Allgäu, Kempten, and Regional Energy Agency Ulm
- Lecturer and examiner at the Guild for Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (TREI certificate)
- Author of the implementation manual for photovoltaic systems – Forum-Verlag
