ITM Power plc (LON:ITM) said its power-to-gas plant that was has been in operation for two years at Thüga Group and continues to exceed expectations.
The German group made an announcement regarding the operational performance of the plant, and ITM has kindly translated the announcement from German and flagged up the highlights.
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ITM said that in two years of rigorous testing, the plant successfully concluded tests for primary grid balancing, and that higher revenues had ensued.
The plant proved to be Smart Grid compatible, operating as part of a virtual network via a real-time control unit. The system intelligently modulated the differences between electricity generation and consumption, which is essential for the deployment of power-to-gas technology in storing large volumes of energy, as the technology serves its purpose only when it responds automatically to constantly changing conditions in the production and consumption of energy.
In the energy sector itself, the plant has met with keen interest and acclaim, Thüga said.
"Our tests have shown that the power-to-gas technology is able to provide primary balancing services," Michael Riechel, chief executive officer (CEO) of Thüga Aktiengesellschaft said.
In May this year the Thüga Group successfully subjected its power-to-gas plant in Frankfurt to the prequalification profile for primary balancing - the so-called "duel bump test". The plant was tested to see if it meets the dynamic response requirements and accuracy for primary energy market balancing.
The test results showed “that the power-to-gas plant could be operated economically, since the potential revenues for primary balancing are higher," according to Riechel.
The plant was prequalified for secondary balancing in 2015.
A comprehensive stress test undertaken last year verified the system's efficiency of more than 70% (based on the higher heating value), which exceeded the expectations of the 13 project partners of the Thüga Group.
The focus of the project partners is on testing the practicality of the technology. The companies are convinced that this has the greatest potential long term to store excess volumes of renewable energy. To this end, the companies have jointly developed, built and operated their own demonstration plant for several years (2012 - 2016) in Frankfurt. The plant converts power into hydrogen, which is then stored in the gas distribution network.
In total, the partners will invest more than €1.5mln in the project, which is funded by the Hessian Ministry of Economics, Energy, Transport and Regional Development and the European Union.
Following the first phase, the project partners are considering a second project, in which carbon dioxide will be combined with hydrogen to form synthetic methane and be subsequently stored.