DuraStor Fast Power Installation at KIT Energy Lab 2.0
The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is one of the leading research institutions in Germany and is among the leading technical universities in Europe. Many well-known inventors and entrepreneurs have studied or taught there.
The KIT Energy Lab 2.0 is a research unit which evaluates emerging technologies for environmentally friendly energy generation and efficient storage and looks at how these can be combined to deliver a reliable and consistent power supply.
Stornetic were approached by KIT to supply its power storage system for evaluation. A single DuraStor container was then installed at the KIT Energy Lab 2.0 site, to provide flywheel-based fast power storage to the local research facility, which is used for experimental and development (R&D) purposes.
The KIT Energy Lab 2.0 were interested to see:
- could DuraStor provide virtual inertia to the HIL (hardware-in-the-loop) R&D facility?
- how could DuraStor support other power supply concepts and grid stability solutions being researched?
“As centralised power generation sources like combustion plants and nuclear plants are removed from the energy supply, more and more renewables and local grids will be needed. We need innovative power storage solutions that can stabilise the variances that will inevitably be caused.”
Quite quickly the customer realised that their DuraStor fast power storage systems could quite easily fit into the model of a future grid design. The research team have now ordered a power extension with a second EnWheel unit from Stornetic as their research has continued.