The electrical engineering firm Reichbrandstätter received unusual enquiries from a number of commercial customers: they had heard that battery storage systems could generate high revenues if they participated in energy trading on the electricity exchange. "In our region in Upper Bavaria, for example, there are many farmers with their own large grid connection points. Naturally, they also wanted a piece of the pie," reports Johannes Mitterreiter, managing director of the master craftsman's business.
Until now, operators of smaller battery storage facilities were excluded from energy trading: it was not economically viable for traders to trade their comparatively small storage capacities on the electricity exchange. Only large storage facilities of around 5 MWh or more are of interest to energy traders.
‘When TESVOLT launched a new business model that virtually bundles many commercial storage systems into one large storage system, we wanted to take a closer look,’ reports Johannes Mitterreiter. "My department head for PV and storage, Stefan Balk, pushed the issue forward and made sure that we were able to participate in the storage field tests as a specialist partner. We were supplied with the appropriate new TESVOLT FORTON storage systems and were able to try out for ourselves how well energy trading works with them."
The electrical installation company from Engelsberg in Chiemgau has a 400 kW grid connection point, to which photovoltaic systems with a total output of 250 kWp were already connected. The company owner wanted to utilise the remaining capacity of the grid connection and connect four battery storage systems with a total output of 184 kW to the grid. The problem: this meant that the total output of the solar systems and battery storage units exceeded the 400 kW capacity of the grid connection by 34 kW. Although electricity storage systems and photovoltaic systems usually operate at different times: when solar systems feed their energy into the grid, the price of electricity on the exchange often plummets, and battery storage systems only sell their energy to the grid when their electricity can be sold at the highest possible price. At times when electricity storage systems and PV systems nevertheless want to use the grid connection point simultaneously for energy feed-in or storage, the electricity flows must be regulated intelligently and as profitably as possible for the owner.
Ultimately, the main challenge was to convince the local energy supplier that the grid connection would not be overloaded at any time.
The master craftsman's business sought direct talks with the energy supplier, the Engelsberg energy cooperative. ‘After several discussions, they understood that TESVOLT ENERGY's intelligent software regulates the electricity storage systems in such a way that they operate in a grid-neutral or even grid-supportive manner,’ explains Johannes Mitterreiter. This enabled the specialist company to install four TESVOLT FORTON battery storage systems on the company premises. They are used 100% for electricity trading and generate monthly revenues in the four-digit range.
With the new TESVOLT FORTON battery storage system and TESVOLT ENERGY, TESVOLT is giving commercial storage operators the opportunity to participate in energy trading for the first time – and on terms that are just as lucrative as those normally only available to large-scale storage facilities.
Particularly fast return on investment
When the TESVOLT FORTON is used for energy trading on the electricity exchange, the investment usually pays for itself after just a few years.
Higher revenues through trader benchmarking
TESVOLT ENERGY works with three of Germany's best traders and pits them against each other in competition.
For customers, this means higher revenues and no dependence on just one trader.
Maximum safety
Integrated smoke, heat and gas sensors, together with an alarm and aerosol extinguishing system, ensure maximum safety. The storage system also does not require liquid cooling.
Everything from a single source
The installation, commissioning and maintenance of TESVOLT FORTON battery systems are carried out by certified TESVOLT specialist partners. TESVOLT ENERGY manages the bundled storage capacity and distributes the revenues to customers on a monthly basis in a transparent manner.
Thanks to trading, there is currently a gold rush atmosphere in the storage industry. However, I wanted to try it out first before selling the model to my customers. Now I know it works. The storage system runs smoothly and generates the predicted revenues. I have already sold ten more FORTONS. Customers come to the yard, see the storage system and say: It looks cool. What can it do? When I show them the revenues, they also want to benefit from energy trading.
Johannes Mitterreiter, Managing Director of Reichbrandstätter Meisterbetrieb
by Cicero Design
German
