ECO STOR creates transparency in the large-scale storage market

This year alone, the Norwegian-Bavarian company plans to implement large battery storage
systems in Germany in the triple-digit megawatt hour range and intends to scale up further
in the coming year. All data will flow into a storage monitoring system that shows how the
large-scale storage segment is growing in the German energy market.

For this year alone, ECO STOR has planned the construction of large-scale storage facilities in the triple-digit megawatt hour range. Next year, further scaling of the sites is then planned. Photo: ECO STOR

In contrast to photovoltaic home storage, the market for large-scale battery storage is growing in line with market opportunities on the wholesale markets. Experts agree that the more photovoltaic and wind power plants are installed, the more active storage capacities are needed on the wholesale markets to ensure a stable energy supply. For ECO STOR, a Norwegian-Bavarian company founded in 2021 in Kirchheim, Bavaria, both are equally important. For this year alone, the company has planned the construction of large-scale storage facilities in the triple-digit megawatt hour range. Next year, the company plans to scale up to a project size of 200 megawatt hours per site.

But project planning for large-scale storage is only one side; the other is to show how large-scale storage can be used to buffer volatility in wholesale markets. A data science team at ECO STOR is working on this, and in particular on the question of whether the growing storage capacity will keep pace with the expansion of photovoltaics and wind power. Furthermore, the question is how the different growth rates influence each other's business models. Due to the lack of publicly available data, the ECO STOR team has developed
its own tool to monitor storage growth.

It is based on the registrations of storage facilities in the market master data register of the Federal Network Agency. All large-scale projects with a capacity of more than 1,000 kilowatt hours and a grid connection from the medium-voltage level are included in the data collection. This was defined as a selection criterion because storage facilities can only meaningfully participate in the wholesale market. The storage monitoring from ECO STOR is freely available here: https://speichermonitor.eco-stor.de/"

Eco Stor's storage monitoring shows where large battery storage facilities have been built or are planned in Germany so far. Screenshot: ECO STOR Storage Monitor

For the company, the focus of its storage monitor is to create transparency and, at the same time, to show how a strongly growing business sector is emerging that must be perceived as a supporting pillar for the energy transition. At the same time, it is a valuable information platform for investors, banks and insurance
companies, explains Georg Gallmetzer, member of the ECO STOR management board. Especially since it is a neutral, manufacturer-independent tool that is based exclusively on freely available data.

This could also be the driver for further dynamic market growth, because models are always interesting for investors when they have proven themselves and reach a certain scale, as ECO STOR continues. Most large-scale storage facilities are already financed by private or institutional investors. The current ever-increasing volatility of electricity prices means that time-delayed trading in energy is now generating sufficient returns to invest in, build and operate such storage facilities, as the Bavarian company points out.

The stronger the price fluctuations on the stock exchange, the higher the return for investors if they use marketing as flexibility on the wholesale marketplaces as a business model for their storage facilities. There are currently just under 190 large-scale storage facilities with a capacity of more than 600 megawatts recorded in the storage monitoring system. A further 400 megawatts of projects are registered in the market master data register as being in the planning stage. However, the registration of the planning
status is not mandatory, so that ECO STOR assumes a significantly larger actual planning volume of new large-scale storage facilities.

Originally posted on the German PV Magazine site: https://www.pv-magazine.de/2022/08/10/eco-stor-schafft-transparenz-auf-dem-grossspeicher-markt/