Elewit decided to invest through its corporate venture capital (CVC) in HESStec because of its innovative character addressing the main challenges of the new energy model, focused on decarbonization, renewable energies, energy efficiency, storage, sustainable mobility and circular economy.
In this sense, the collaboration in various projects between HESStec, a company specialized in the development and supply of energy storage solutions and asset management systems using proprietary and patented hardware and software technologies, and Red Eléctrica, the Spanish TSO and backbone of the Spanish electricity system, arises from Elewit's investment in the capital of the storage company.
Following the investment, three innovation projects have been carried out, all focused on revolutionizing energy storage. Work is currently underway on the hybrid storage project for synchronous grid-forming, but this project is a consequence of the success of those previously developed, including the hybrid storage project with grid-forming control (INERTIA+), also promoted by Iberdrola.
Hybrid storage with grid-forming control project (INERTIA+)
The INERTIA+ project consisted of the development and laboratory evaluation (Advanced Grid Lab, owned by Hesstec) of an innovative storage system equipped with grid forming control. In order to make use of the best current technologies for a full range of services, the hybrid storage system consisted of an ultra-capacitor bank (UCAP) combined with electrochemical storage batteries.
The results have demonstrated the ability of the combined system to operate in GFM mode providing, among other services, power regulation, load-feeding islanding, service restoration, oscillation damping and inertia emulation. It has also been shown that the use of ultracapacitors reduces the thermal stress (and degradation) of the battery.
Along the project, HESStec deployed a 250kW hybrid storage system integrating 125 KWh of Li-Ion batteries and 0.9 kWh of ultracapacitors, along with an InMS management system that managed both the system itself and the interaction with the test scenario.
One of the highlights of the project was the use of the Advanced Grid Laboratory. This facility facilitates the development and testing in a controlled environment of advanced storage technologies and control systems to meet the current and future challenges of the power system.
As a conclusion it has been demonstrated that GFM systems can provide robustness to the grid, facilitating the path towards decarbonization.