| Work Detail |
300 million reais (55.5 million dollars) were invested in 20 projects carried out by 13 companies. The results of the strategic call were published by the agency in a report, which includes suggestions for improving regulations. The call for strategic projects 21/2016 of the Research, Development and Innovation Program (PDI), on the insertion of energy storage systems, attracted investments of R$300 million, an average of R$14 million for each of the 20 completed projects, and resulted in the publication of 11 patents. The National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) published a report presenting the main results of the projects, which is available in the Agencys virtual library. 29 IDP projects were received for technical and commercial agreements for the insertion of energy storage systems in the Brazilian electricity sector. Of these, 21 were approved for initial evaluation and 20 were finalized. The main storage technologies developed were chemical batteries and hydrogen. Products, methodologies and systems with published patents include, for example, a floating system for photovoltaic plants, developed by Furnas; a standard energy storage system for local control of grid voltage and management of local energy production and consumption in units connected to low-voltage networks, developed by Copel; and a Smartbattery system for active control of energy flow and equalization for electrochemical storage connected to the electrical grid, developed by Petrobras. In their final reports, the projects also made suggestions for regulatory improvements for the insertion of storage systems: Enable greater integration and remuneration of Energy Storage Systems (ESS) in the electrical system. Enter a specific classification of storage assets. Hold auctions involving storage resources and other flexibility technologies to provide operational reserve resources. Evaluate the EES in the provision of auxiliary services, taking into account requirements such as availability, operating time, ramping, among others. Improve price signaling with greater temporal and local granularity. Allow monetization of services such as temporary power shifting, stabilization of renewable generation, congestion relief, and deferral of transmission investments, among others. Include storage asset services in the databases of transmission and distribution companies. Aneel plans to publish a regulation by the end of the year based on the contributions received in Public Consultation 39/2023, opened by the body between October and December of last year, which could address some of these suggestions. The lack of specific regulation has been an argument against the participation of battery storage systems in the next capacity reserve auction, although interested parties argue that the association of renewable plants with BESS, being already regulated, would be eligible to compete. The studies in Aneels PDI call may also lead to more applications of batteries as assets in distribution networks. Cemig, which developed two projects in the call, now also has an open tender for the purchase of a Distributed Energy Supply System, consisting of a 500 kWp solar plant and 1 MWh of battery storage, which will be incorporated into the distribution system, with the capacity to autonomously supply around 500 consumers in the municipality of Serra da Saudade (MG). |
