With the push of a button, one of the largest batteries has recently been officially commissioned. Essent and SemperPower installed the 9.9 MWh battery – consisting of three storage units the size of a sea container – at the Koegorspolder wind farm in Terneuzen. This is Essent's first storage battery to be used. These types of smart batteries store sustainable energy at times of abundance and release it when the market demands it. In this way, optimum use is made of the generated sustainable electricity.
“Energy prices are extremely high and a fall is not yet in prospect. One of the solutions is to store energy at times of surplus,” says Stephan Segbers, COO of Essent. “How do we ensure that sustainably generated energy is not wasted? The solution is to store the temporary surplus of energy in a battery. When necessary, the battery releases the power already generated to provide households with the previously generated sustainable power. This makes the energy bill more affordable again,” he continues.
Second project together
Although SemperPower is a new player on the market, it is already developing several large-scale battery projects. The collaboration with Essent is very promising. The agreement is to also realize a second project near Vlissingen. SemperPower's mission is to accelerate the energy transition, a mission that Essent fully supports. “We are extremely proud of our contract with a renowned company like Essent,” says Bart de Brouwer, Trading Director of SemperPower. “At SemperPower we develop, finance and realize new, innovative Energy Storage Systems (EOS). The collaboration with Essent is important to us, because it gives us the opportunity to demonstrate how our solutions contribute to accelerating the energy transition. By temporarily storing the excess energy generated in smart batteries, Energy Storage Systems (EOS), we ensure that the wind turbines can continue to run and we prevent the waste of sustainable energy. A temporary surplus of wind energy can be stored in the batteries and supplied to the energy network at a later date.”
Smart customer solutions
Essent strives to match sustainably generated power with the power demand of its customers. Smart solutions are needed for this. Large-scale battery storage is one of them. The collaboration with SemperPower ensures that the large-scale battery storage facility in Terneuzen can be used directly in Essent's customer portfolio. In the short term, this already provides important insights for further development towards a 100% renewable energy supply.
Keeping the electricity grid in balance is one of the biggest challenges for the transition to a 100% renewable energy supply in the Netherlands. With EIS (Energy Infrastructure Solutions), Essent focuses on sustainable initiatives in the renewable energy market.
