Self-consumption, flexibility, storage: solutions for the future
In a context of environmental transition, the building revolution continues apace. Buildings are more flexible but also more agile in their management of energy. Self-consumption and storage are pioneering technologies that are in step with new energy habits. Two companies in the Greater Eastern region are at the forefront of these growth markets.
The trend is accelerating and energy companies are increasingly positioning themselves in the market for flexibility and energy storage solutions. “Storage is the key to facilitating the integration of renewable energies – photovoltaics in particular – and supporting the rise of new energy habits such as self-consumption and electric mobility”, asserts Gilles Rocchia, Director of Innovation and Marketing at Socomec. For the last five years, Benfeld, a company specialising in power cuts, control and conversion, has been developing an industrial solution for storing electrical power using lithium-ion batteries which store photovoltaic electricity. “We are currently working on various demonstrators to test our solutions on the ground. Working with Enedis in Nice, we are taking part in the Nice Smart Valley programme based on three trials: islanding, managing local flexibility and storage. Flexibility ensures a balance between supply and demand at local level. Islanding guarantees the electricity supply for a whole neighbourhood during an outage. And storage allows the electricity produced in the day to be used at night, for example.
Self-generation on the rise
Socomec’s contribution to this project is mainly through the automation of islanding with the help of our storage solution. As such, in a world first, we disconnected a whole neighbourhood from the grid for eight hours and powered it only with locally generated photovoltaic energy. This successful experiment opens up new possibilities such as smart grids aimed at the local integration of as much renewable energy as possible and the optimisation of building management. “ In Faulquemont, the heating systems manufacturer, Viessmann is banking on a rise in self-generation. “It is gaining momentum against the backdrop of the energy transition and the constant increase in electricity prices, observes March Ruch, Head of Marketing. Today, cogeneration is an essential complement to conventional power production.
Entering a new era
To meet the challenges of self-generation and storage, innovative power and heat production techniques such as fuel cells are being used. We are the first business to introduce onto the European market mass-produced fuel cells that are capable of meeting the heating needs of a single home all year long.” For Viessmann, the key to success lies in a single word: flexibility. “The key is to match production and consumption as closely as possible. Balancing supply and demand requires more flexible, flow-responsive management. Our solutions are moving towards smart systems – smart meters and grids – which make consumers a full player in the power grid and lead them to adjust their demand, for example reducing it during peaks in consumption. Smart systems can also be used to activate scenarios to erase connected customers. We are at the very beginning of a new era of energy use.” Decentralised production, storage, flexibility: all challenges and new possibilities that are putting the inventiveness of the energy industry to the test.
