The Zott dairy has been able to significantly reduce electricity costs at its site in Günzburg, Bavaria, in 2021 - with the help of a hybrid storage system installed by energy company Bayernwerk Natur in May 2021.
"Due to the expansion of renewable energies and the resulting challenges for grid operators, electricity grid charges have risen in recent years. With battery storage systems, energy-intensive companies can cap peak loads, significantly reduce their electricity costs and relieve the grid," explains Dr. Matthias Philipp, Project Manager Product and Solution Development at Bayernwerk Natur GmbH. This is because grid operators consider their customers to be serving the grid from 7,000 annual usage hours and offer lower prices in accordance with Section 19 of the German Electricity Grid Charges Ordinance (StromNEV). The key figure is calculated by dividing the annual energy consumption by the maximum power consumption of a company. Zott has achieved 7,031 annual usage hours with the hybrid storage system.
Ten outdoor scalebloc commercial storage units with a total capacity of 685 kWh cut the dairy's peak loads by 618 kW. The system from manufacturer Intilion consists of a battery, inverter and energy management system and is housed in a climate-controlled outdoor enclosure. A protective rack prevents fires from spreading and noise protection hoods reduce the noise level to below 35 dB. In Günzburg, a 1,000 kVA genset supports the storage units during long load peaks. The scaleblocs are modularly connected so that each storage system works independently. Bayernwerk Natur has also designed the control system in the central switch and control cabinets to be redundant. Both Bayernwerk Natur and Zott can monitor the system via the Intilion cloud.
