Smart Copenhagen – Power balancing and storage I

The more fluctuating renewable energy from the sun, wind and water being introduced in our  energy system, the greater will be need to storage energy for shorter (balancing; seconds to minutes) or longer periods (storage; days to moths) of time. With hydrogen, renewable energy can be stored for longer periods of time.

The project partners wish to demonstrate grid balancing and energy storage using hydrogen and fuel cell technologies in interaction with electricity, heat and gas supply in MW scale with key technology provides and utilities. Once essential technologies such as large electrolysis and fuel cells (both>1MW effect), hydrogen storage, interaction of these and the existing infrastructure such as the electricity grid, district heating and city gas distribution have been demonstrated they will be proven technologies to the goal market and the partners in the project will have the road to commercialization paved. The demonstration effort will aim both at bringing the technical risks down to a minimum and at serving as showcase to costumers of each of the partners.

The City of Copenhagen will serve as the demonstration host and is heavily involved in the promotion of the technologies, as they fit perfectly with the CHP 2025 Copenhagen Climate Plan approved by the City Council. The target is for Copenhagen to be CO2 neutral by 2025.

The financial implications for this demonstration are huge, both with respect to investments in demonstration version of technologies and the required modification of especially the district heating system and the power supply. Hence, the project consortium has decided to divide the effort into three phases.

Phase 1: Pre-project phase (this application):
The pre-project will provide solid and detailed analyses for investment decisions, both on a project level and for each partner. Not only investments are critical, also the economy in the operation must be better understood.

Phase 2: Demonstration phase (future applications):
The demonstration platform will be designed and prepared for construction and deployed in Copenhagen, followed by testing and operating.

Phase 3: Exploiting commercial potential (after demonstration phase):
With the demonstration completed, the partners will have proved the viability y of their technologies and are ready to target the global market and be used as commercial showcase for the consortium.

The project is based on an extremely solid and competent consortium able to carry through to full commercialization, bringing together many of the development tracks undertaken in recent years in Denmark, and in line with the current technology strategies. Partners for the applied pre-project include the City of Copenhagen, HOFOR, Dantherm Power, GreenHydrogen, DGC, Haldor Topsøe and DTU. More partners will join for the demonstration phase.
Smart Copenhagen will demonstrate energy storage using hydrogen and fuel cell technologies in interaction with electricity, heat and gas supply in MW scale with key technology provides and utilities.
The application covers a pre-project feasibility study to provide an informed basis for decision, as the demonstration project will involve large investments and complex operating costs over many years.