German solar battery maker Sonnen qualifies to provide grid services - battery storage systems

Villa EckertFRANKFURT (Reuters )-
German solar cell maker Sonnen has been approved to join the lucrative market in order to keep the country's power network balanced and thus drive its efforts to make a profit. Jean-
Baptiste Cornefert, head of retail at Sonnen eserv, told Reuters that TenneT, Germany's largest power grid company, has accepted the addition of so-
Known as balancing the market, companies compete in auctions to either provide electricity or put it into storage to keep the system balanced.
Sonnen will start at so-
Starting next week, he said, by bringing together the power generation and storage of thousands of small customers, known as the main balancing power auction.
"For the first time, the big network of home storage systems has become the protagonist of the energy market," Cornefert said . ".
The move will allow Sonnen to compete with 25 German power companies, including RWE and Uniper .
Sonnen received 60 million euros ($71 million) from Shell venture capital.
L> and existing shareholders expanding at home and abroad, have sold about 30,000 sets of battery storage systems to German households with rooftop solar panels.
While its customers typically consume 70% of the electricity they produce on their own, batteries can help them store power for later use and release it to the public grid, or share it with other Sonnen community members on the online network.
Adding to the balanced market offers another option, the company said, which will offer a flexible production or storage module of 1 MW (MW) up to 100 MW.
Only a small fossil.
Fuel power plants, but it has the potential to expand as storage becomes cheaper and power generation becomes less concentrated. Germany has 1.
5 million the subsidy sales tariff for the solar system will be phased out in the coming years.
It is becoming more and more important to provide balance.
As more and more renewable energy power generation capacity is built up driven by Germany
The carbon economy, the decline or surge in power grid frequency has become faster and more intense.
The grid frequency must not deviate too far from about 50Hz to keep the flow on the transmission line intact.
The control measures taken by the grid manager need to be adjusted within 30 seconds, and the current operator's income may be 100,000-
€ 150,000 per megawatt per year.
Cornefert said that Sonnen may reimburse customers for the balance of market revenue in the form of a right to free electricity. ($1 = 0.