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Energy grids and storage

The Berlin-Brandenburg region is making a valuable contribution to the development of smart grids, storage concepts and innovative solutions for sector coupling between energy infrastructures.

Numerous innovations are from the region: Europe's first commercial battery power plant went online here and, in addition to the world's first hybrid power plant, which generates not only electricity and heat but also wind gas, a power-to-gas pilot plant is operated here.

On the EUREF-Campus in Berlin, a nearly CO2-neutral energy supply will be realized with the help of a local micro smart grid with central load management by NBB Netzgesellschaft Berlin-Brandenburg. Furthermore, the GASAG Solution Plus built a 500 kWel P2H plant in combination with a P2C system and integrated it into the existing heating and cooling supply. This means that excess energy can be flexibly stored in the form of heat and cold in the event of heavy network loads.

In Berlin, the company Vattenfall Wärme operates Europe's largest power-to-heat plant. Its total output of 120 megawatts corresponds thermally to an output of around 60,000 standard water boilers. It replaced the hard coal unit "C" of the Reuter CHP plant and supplies up to 30,000 households with district heating. The system is preferably operated with electricity from renewable energies.

Blockheizkraftwerks- Träger- und Betreibergesellschaft mbH Berlin (BTB) has been operating its innovative cogeneration system with a river water heat pump at the cogeneration plant Schöneweide since 2022. It has a thermal output of around 3 MW making it the most powerful system of this type in Berlin.

About the Capital Region

„The specific combination of Brandenburg, a region with a high level of wind energy conversion, and Berlin, which has a high population density, offers outstanding potential for integrating renewable energy. Smart grid technology can be used to control storage systems and flexible loads, and managing cross-medial grids for electricity and heat.“

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kai Strunz
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kai Strunz Head of Department Sustainable Electric Networks and Sources of Energy, TU Berlin

Berlin-Brandenburg is the ideal location for development and testing

  • Leading in the development and management of energy networks with a high proportion of renewable energies
  • Development and integration of energy storage technologies for grid stabilization
  • Expertise for system security in complex energy networks
  • Management of multi-sectoral infrastructures (electricity, heat, water) and optimization in terms of efficiency and safety
  • Development and implementation of sector coupling for:
    • heat (power-to-heat) through high-temperature steel reservoirs, conventional water storage (up to 120 MWth), and salt reservoirs;
    • Hydrogen deliver (power-to-gas), transport and storage;
    • electromobility (power-to-mobility) and hydrogen for mobility (H₂-to-mobility) for public transport (rail and buses), logistics, and cars

Close cooperation of science and industry

  • With the GridLab, the region has a unique research and training infrastructure for network simulation under operating conditions.
  • Together with Siemens, Vattenfall, and German E-Cars, the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg is testing the use of vehicle batteries as storage in the power grid in the "SMART Capital Region" project.
  • In cooperation with ENERTRAG and TOTAL Deutschland, BTU also operates a hydrogen and storage research center with a pilot plant, in which hydrogen is flexibly produced using electrolysis with pressures of up to 60 bar (depending on wind power generation).
  • The IZB, the energy innovation center at TU Berlin, links expert knowledge on energy issues across the university's faculties and institutes and promotes exchange with industrial and external research partners.
  • HTW Berlin has a special focus on the intelligent linking of photovoltaic systems with battery and heat storage.
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Energy grids and storage in Berlin-Brandenburg

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