Global vanadium redox flow battery manufacturer VRB Energy has started the commissioning of an energy storage system in China’s Hubei Province.
VRB said the 3-megawatt/12-megawatt-hour vanadium redox battery in Zaoyang is part of 10MW/40MWh contract the company was awarded in November 2017.
The Zaoyang battery will be used to integrate a large-scale solar PV system into the grid. The first— 250kW/1MWh— battery module of the system has been successfully commissioned.
VRB’s chief technical officer and president of China operations, Dr Mianyan Huang, said: “We have successfully integrated the first module of a 1MW/4MWh VRB ESS into the local grid, allowing our customer Hubei Pingfan to immediately benefit from cost-savings in peak-hour electricity tariffs through energy arbitrage at its industrial park,”
Once the contracted 10MW/40MWh system has been commissioned, Hubei Province has planned a larger 100MW/500MWh energy storage project, which will fulfil a key initiative of China’s 2017 energy storage policy— to deploy multiple 100MW-scale vanadium flow batteries. This large project will be the cornerstone of a new smart-energy grid in Hubei, serving as a critical peak power plant to deliver energy reliability and reduce emissions.
