Evaluation of KPIs and Battery Usage of Li-ion BESS for FCR Application

Abstract: The main purpose of this thesis was to develop and evaluate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and battery usage associated with Lithium-ion Battery Energy Storage Systems (LiBESS) used as Frequency Containment Reserve (FCR). The investigation was based on three of Vattenfall´s LiBESS projects that use the same lithium-ion battery technology but vary in system rating and configuration. It was found that two of the most important KPIs are response time and energy efficiency. The response time describes how fast the system can respond to changes in grid frequency. Additionally, the energy efficiency describes how effectively the system can provide energy storage during service and it can be parametrized into the efficiency of the battery, converter and transformer. The results show that all the considered LiBESS can fulfill the response time requirements of 30 seconds for FCR provision. In the future stricter requirements for the response time in grid stabilization services will most likely be required. Nevertheless, the results showed that a well configured LiBESS can provide response times on the millisecond scale. The energy efficiency evaluation showed that the system energy efficiency decreased from 89% to 85% when the power increased from 50% to 100% of rated power. At 75% of rated power it was found that the converter had the lowest efficiency (92%) based on the analysis of the efficiency of all the system components. It was also found that the power consumed by auxiliary loads was nearly constant for the examined power rates and that it significantly reduced the energy efficiency. Lastly, the battery usage analysis showed that the battery often idles or operates at low power rates if the frequency dead-band of ±10 mHz is applied around the nominal value of 50 Hz. Moreover, the battery usage can be characterized by an average State of Charge of 50% and a maximum Depth of Discharge of 30% during both charge and discharge of the batteries.