By joining Enel X’s Virtual Power Plant (VPP), UQ’s battery joins a collection of distributed energy resources including generators and equipment that provide critical grid services through demand response and flexibility programs.
Enel X pays UQ for being on standby to provide instant, dispatchable capacity to the grid when large power stations or transmission lines suddenly fail. This helps to keep the grid’s frequency in balance and reduces the threat of cascading power failures.
UQ Energy and Sustainability Manager Andrew Wilson, said, “The high number of FCAS events in Q1 correlated to unprecedented network conditions across the NEM, with the summer bushfires and other extreme weather events. With Enel X, we were able to provide instant capacity to support the grid’s frequency throughout this challenging period.”
“One of the key characteristics typical of batteries versus other forms of energy storage is their incredibly fast response times. During commissioning tests, our battery has responded from zero to full discharge at as fast as 200 milliseconds. It can swap from full charge to full discharge in around 400 milliseconds.”
“This makes it an ideal technology for participation in the NEM’s various FCAS markets. Our capacity is available to respond in less than one second to a drop in system frequency below the threshold of 49.85 Hz, until frequency is restored to the normal operating range,” Wilson said.
One performance example in UQ’s report shows an event that occurred on Friday 6 March in the afternoon, when Unit 4 of the Loy Yang A brown coal power station in Victoria unexpectedly tripped offline, resulting in the sudden loss of 558 MW of generation and causing the mainland NEM frequency to dip as low as 49.75 Hz – well below the contingency FCAS trigger point of 49.85 Hz.
Enel X’s onsite meter sensed this frequency deviation and immediately signalled to the battery to switch from charging at a rate of 919 kW to discharging at a sustained rate of 1,099 kW - providing the equivalent of 2.02 MW of ‘instantaneous reserve generation’ into the network to help arrest the fall in frequency. This event lasted five minutes, in which the battery resumed normal operation after frequency was restored to within its safe operating range.