Global system integrator Fluence has been awarded a 60MW/96MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) order in Taiwan for state-owned utility Taipower, its second in the country.
Fluence and local firm TECO Group will supply a 60MW BESS to Taiwan Power Company’s (Taipower) Taoyuan Longtan substation in the north of the country, one of 29 it operates nationally. Fluence said the substation serves as an important node of the 345KV power grid in Taiwan.
The BESS is a 1.6 hour-duration project which will total investment of over NT$2.6 billion (US$89 million), Fluence said. It comes five months after the US-listed company announced its first BESS project in the country, a smaller 6MW system for independent power producer (IPP) IPA Energy which will also be on Taipower’s network.
Taipower plans to have 160MW of energy storage on its network according to the press release but could procure a total of over 500MW of storage over the next four years for new ancillary services. One of these, Automatic Frequency Control (AFC), is the main revenue stream for energy storage projects in the country.
Other system integrators have capitalised on this and entered the Taiwanese market through 2021. Powin Energy announced a project in July, in August Wärtsilä entered the market and in October New HOrizons Ahead (NHOA) joined them.
The country aims to get 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2025.
Fluence partners with cQuant.io
The system integrator has also announced another addition to its Fluence IQ Digital Platform, an ecosystem of in-house and third-party software for optimising and developing storage and power assets.
It has entered intro a strategic partnership with cQuant.io, describing it as a leader in energy analytics. According to its website, cQuant’s solutions comprise a market simulation suite, renewables & storage, portfolio & risk management, asset value & management, trade analysis and analytic consulting services.
The two companies will will jointly integrate, market and deliver their market operations solutions, the press release said.
It is the latest in a series of partnerships with or acquisitions of software firms that Fluence has announced. Software is a growing portion of BESS solution providers’ value proposition across the sector as growing deployments of renewables drive market volatility requiring more sophisticated management of assets to capitalise on this.
In mature markets, storage assets are also moving away from being purely ancillary service providers to actively trading energy, which again requires more sophisticated planning and management.
Last month, the company acquired Zurich-based Nispera which provides artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning-enabled (ML) software-as-a-service (SaaS) for renewable energy assets with 8GW under management.
In February, it partnered with Pexapark, a similar outfit providing market intelligence about renewable energy power purchase agreements (PPAs) and energy portfolio risk management optimisation solutions.