Electricity and Control October 2024

ENERGY MANAGEMENT + THE INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENT

Battery energy storage in sustainable energy solutions

At Electra Mining Africa this year, Eduardo Werninghaus, CEO at WEG Africa, outlined the company’s internal evolution over the past year, highlighting its strategic realignment focusing on sustainability – internally and in the solutions it offers the market.Werninghaus said WEG recognises the growing need for sustainability in all sectors of industry and at multiple levels.

I n this context, looking spe cifically at sustainable en ergy, the company offers a range of technologies, includ ing solar, wind, steam and bat

Ricardo Estefano Rosa (left) and Pervin Gurie (right) on the WEG stand at Electra Mining Africa 2024.

tery energy storage solutions, which means it can also offer customers various hybrid solutions to meet their needs. Leigh Darroll spoke to Pervin Gurie, Director of the Digital & Systems Division at WEG Africa, and Ricardo Estefano Rosa, from WEG’s Brazilian head office where he leads the WEG team responsible for developing its Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) business, about the company’s Battery Energy Storage Systems and the expertise WEG offers in this field. As renewable energy development gains ground in South Africa, southern Africa and across the continent, we see the emergence of small-scale localised microgrids, mid-scale self-generation installations serving specific commercial or industrial facilities, and larger independent power plants, up to utility-scale, sited where renewable sources can be optimised. These decentralised, distributed energy sources call for new Energy Management Systems (EMS) designed to manage different energy sources in a coordinated way in order to optimise efficiencies and consumption and to control the interface and feed-in to the grid, where applicable. Alongside the range of energy technologies it offers, and the related electrical equipment, WEG also has its own energy management systems – providing the digital moni toring and control technologies that extend from the power plant to the point of connection – all developed in-house. Battery Energy Storage Systems, or BESS, are increas

A BESS skid solution.

ingly recognised as a key element in renewable energy systems as they provide the flexibility and stability – two critical factors – to support consistent power supply, in in dependent power plants and particularly where those pow er plants feed into the national grid. Gurie says that although the market for industrial and utility-scale BESS is relatively new in South and southern Africa, WEG has a number of projects in the pipeline, in the 12 MW to 30/34 MW range. He points out that WEG BESS systems are modular – and therefore scalable – and are custom engineered to meet the needs of each project. Developing a new technology Estefano says WEG in Brazil began research and develop ment of BESS in 2016 and, in 2018, it investigated the US market to understand the technologies in use there. Glob ally, the renewable energy sector has grown significantly since then, technologies have advanced, and the cost of batteries continues to fall. The company now supplies a well-established and still growing renewable energy sec tor in Brazil and other Latin American countries such as Colombia and Mexico. He adds that WEG in South Africa

WEG BESS solutions are custom engineered to meet the needs of each project; above is a BESS containerised solution.

12 Electricity + Control OCTOBER 2024