ITM Power, the energy storage company, has officially inaugurated the Thüga Group's power-to-gas plant in Frankfurt am Main. ITM Power delivered the PEM electrolyser, first ordered in March 2013, to the site in September 2013. The plant successfully injected the first ever electrolytically generated hydrogen into the Frankfurt am Main natural gas distribution network in December 2013. Final acceptance of the plant was achieved at the end of March 2014, which meant that all stages of the project had been met on time.
The development of storage technologies is one of the main challenges for the energy transition (Energiewende) if the integration of wind and solar power is to succeed. "The companies involved in this innovative project are making a significant contribution" the Hessian minister of Economics, Tarek Al- Wazir, said at the commissioning of the power-to-gas demonstration plant at the Mainova AG site in Frankfurt.
When at the end of last year the plant injected hydrogen into the Frankfurt gas distribution network it became the first plant to inject electrolytic generated hydrogen into the German gas distribution network.
The successful technical acceptance of the system by the project partners at the end of March 2014 represented the end of the planning and construction phase. "That was an exciting time for us. We had to prove the stable operation of a system that had not previously existed. For example, the interaction of the electrolyser with the gas mixing plant had to function fault-free," commented Michael Riechel, member of the board of Thüga AG. ITM Power's proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyser is the core of the system. This converts electrical energy into chemical energy in the form of hydrogen fuel, which can be stored. The gas mixing plant ensures that the proportion of hydrogen in the distribution network does not exceed 2% by volume.
The plant is now entering its 3-year operational phase, during which time the plant will participate in the balancing energy market and provide negative balancing power. When there is a surplus of power available on the grid, the TSO can request that the load on the electrolyser is increased, to absorb the excess power by creating hydrogen. This also contributes to the stability of the electricity grid.
The project partners, in collaboration with the DVGW Research Institute and the European Institute for Energy Research, are testing the dynamics of the system. Parameters such as control speed (ie how fast the system can be started up and shut down), efficiency and depreciation will be measured and analysed.
In addition, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems developed software for real-time control of the complete system. This will help to integrate the plant into an increasingly intelligent energy system. "We want to integrate the plant so that it autonomously compensates for the differences between renewable energy generation and power consumption," said Mr Riechel.
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