Energy storage – the key to success

Everyone is talking about electromobility and the circular economy. What exact approach is Mercedes- Benz Energy taking?

Making smart use of automotive battery systems is an important approach when it comes to handling resources efficiently. The aim of Mercedes- Benz Energy is to make the most of a battery’s potential by turning it into an energy storage system to extend its life cycle. It’s essential to closely interlink the energy and automotive industries as we pursue carbon neutrality.

So Mercedes-Benz Energy is a kind of bridge between the two industries?

The stationary storage solutions from Mercedes-Benz Energy can be used for everything from balancing load peaks to black starts and uninterruptible power supplies – UPSs. The energy revolution is making load peak balancing in particular increasingly important. For example, our storage systems help balance out the volatile generation of power from renewable energies and keep the voltage in grids constant. In the energy industry, this is referred to as the operating reserve. The large storage systems we have already installed in Germany provide an operating reserve of around 40 megawatts, which accounts for just under ten per cent of the total operating reserve required.

Is load peak balancing of this kind also suitable for other applications?

Industry, too, is showing a growing interest in the battery storage systems from Kamenz. After all, vehicle batteries can optimise load management and therefore costs wherever energy-intensive processes are taking place. Industrial customers pay a demand-based charge that remains the same throughout the year and relates to the peak demand. Storage systems reduce consumption peaks by feeding in energy at the appropriate time, so investing in a stationary storage system quickly pays off for many companies.

You mention raw material efficiency as an important factor. What exactly does that involve?

Once lithium-ion batteries have served their purpose in a vehicle, if they can be used and marketed for another ten years by being integrated into a large energy storage system, for instance, then their economic value is doubled. At the same time, this extended period of use improves the batteries’ eco credentials, because their valuable raw materials remain in circulation. Only at the very end of their life cycle are they recycled. We want to make the entire Group and also our customers more aware of this. Batteries may no longer be able to meet the original requirements after operating for a certain period and may not therefore be suitable for the spare parts market, but they definitely have the potential to be put to good use in a stationary storage system. Small losses of capacity aren’t as much of an issue in a stationary storage system, so it’s more a case of “keeping batteries fit”. Regularly charging and discharging batteries acts as a kind of live-cell therapy.

Do particular prerequisites need to be met when using a stationary energy storage system?

The ambition of many companies is to make their production completely carbon neutral, and lithium-ion batteries could play a key role in this. A large number of industrial customers need direct current – also referred to as DC current – to power items such as electric motors, electronic control units, computers and LED lights. Consequently, alternating current – or AC current – from the grid is converted, sometimes in several stages, and energy is lost during this process. A DC power supply eliminates at least one conversion stage and is therefore clearly more efficient, especially if plants are supplied with direct current from a local photovoltaic system to start with.