Toshiba to Supply Large-scale Lithium-ion Battery Energy Storage System For Ohio Frequency Regulation Project

Toshiba (TYO:6502) will supply a large scale battery energy storage system (BESS) for a frequency regulation project to be carried out by Sumitomo Corporation in Hamilton, Ohio. The BESS will integrate an array of its 6MW-2MWh SCiB™ lithium-ion batteries, and will be delivered in November. To be sure, the news is interesting to note for market watchers keeping an eye on the energy storage aspect of lithium demand.

As quoted in the press release:

Toshiba’s SCiB™ is a highly innovative lithium-ion secondary battery, distinguished by its long-life and excellent performance; it charges and discharges efficiently in a wide range of temperatures, high and low. It has a long lifetime of over 10,000 charge-discharge cycles, and operates with a high level of reliability and safety, including high resistance to external shock. The SCiB™ has found numerous applications, such as the power source for electric and hybrid vehicles.

The USA has seen the emergence of a power trading through a frequency regulation market[1] as a mechanism for preventing instability in the power grid resulting from the feed-in of increasingly and widely used renewable energy sources, such as wind power and photovoltaic generation. Toshiba’s BESS delivers a rapid and fine-tuned response to frequency changes, and with the SCiB™’s long life, it offers an optimized solution for long-term power regulation.

Toshiba is promoting BESS globally as an effective tool for ironing out frequency fluctuations and supporting stable power networks, and has supplied systems for projects in Japan and around the world.

February 20th this year saw the start of commercial operation of the world’s largest 40MW[2]-20MWh BESS that Toshiba supplied for the Nishi-Sendai Substation Battery Energy Storage System Project[3], operated by Tohoku Electric Power Company. The project was launched as a new measure against frequency changes caused by power output fluctuations. Demand for such measures has increased with the growth of renewable generation. The BESS for the Nishi-Sendai Project is the first large-scale BESS connected to Japan’s grid.

Overseas, Toshiba has supplied BESS to contribute to stable power supply by suppressing changes in frequency.

In Europe, Toshiba has supplied BESS to projects in Italy, Spain, and the UK. In Italy, Toshiba supplied BESS for Terna Storage, a subsidiary of Terna S.p.A., an Italian transmission company. In Spain, Toshiba collaborated with Spain’s Gas Natural Fenosa in an on-site verification testing program[4] for a transportable lithium-ion BESS, with the aim of achieving an efficient, reliable and stable distribution network. In the UK, Toshiba supplied SCiB™ for a 2MW energy storage system project led by the University of Sheffield.

In the USA, Toshiba teamed up with Duke Energy, a major US utility, in a pilot project[4] for a BESS designed to regulate frequency and to increase grid stability. The BESS started operation in January this year.

Click here to read the Toshiba (TYO:6502) press release