On September 17, Schwerin-based energy supplier WEMAG AG officially commissioned the WBS 500 battery storage station in Mecklenburg. Compared to the two battery storage power plants Schwerin 1 and Schwerin 2, which were designed and built by WEMAG, the WBS 500 is comparatively small and has a significantly higher energy and power density: "Compared to the first WEMAG battery storage power plant, the WBS 500 has about one sixth of the energy, but only on one hundredth of the enclosed space," said Energy Minister Christian Pegel, praising the station.
The project not only convinced the public and politicians, but also the Grüner Strom Label e.V.: The battery storage station was supported with funds from the Grüner Strom certification of the "Öko-Aktivstrom" products of WEMAG AG. The Green Electricity Label guarantees that for every kilowatt hour of certified green electricity consumed, a fixed amount is invested by the energy provider in nature-friendly energy transition projects. In this way, consumers of Green Electricity-certified green electricity products support the further development of battery storage systems.
Battery storage systems have many different functions and fulfill important tasks on the way to a 100 % renewable energy supply: "Battery storage systems are like a Swiss army knife for the energy transition - they have various functions and can be used in many different ways," explained Thomas Murche, technical director of WEMAG AG.
Small battery storage stations like the WBS 500 can improve grid stability in the future and enable the integration of renewable energies and charging infrastructures for electromobility. Several battery stations can also be connected to form virtual power plants and thus be used by grid operators as grid resources to respond more flexibly to grid situations.
Since 2014, WEMAG has been operating a lithium-ion battery storage facility in Schwerin, whose capacity was doubled from five to ten megawatts in June 2017. The new station in Neustadt-Glewe is thus the third large-scale battery project of the municipal energy supplier.
