Souped-up battery system bound for S. Korea smart-grid tests
Published Tuesday, 1st November 2011
Two big batteries and an energy control system are on their way from Wisconsin to South Korea as part of a planned microgrid test on Jeju Island.
The island has been designated as a test site for South Korea’s 2.75 trillion won ($2.45 billion) smart-grid project. The nation’s smart-grid model envisions evolving from an electricity distribution system dominated by a main power grid to one that relies on microgrids in which each home would also generate its own energy via either a wind turbine or photovoltaic (PV) panels.
The Jeju Island microgrid test will deploy a system from ZBB Energy Corp. that includes a power and energy control center and two zinc-bromide flow battery modules with a storage capacity of 100 kilowatt-hours. The test will connect the batteries with “smart” renewable-energy inputs to assess the feasibility of a variety of green energy alternatives and technologies. The EnerSystem control center will provide a single point of connection for all those various elements to the grid.
The battery modules were re-engineered with the help of Honam Petrochemical to provide more advanced and cost-effective energy storage, according to ZBB.
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