Factory Case Study

Biomass Plant, Ontario, Canada

Problem

Our client in Northern Ontario operates a biomass plant. Such plants do not operate at a flat output, but they do not ramp up fast enough to keep up with load growth in the morning or ramp down fast enough at night to follow the load drop. The client has been using diesel generators for this function as generators follow load variations quickly. But the fuel costs and the emissions associated does not make it the ideal choice.

Solution

In this factory case study, battery energy storage is well suited to provide the instantaneous load response required during such operations. Below, the metered load data for the plant during a 24- hour cold day in January has been broken into manual count of kWh charge & discharge for 15-minute intervals to design the BESS:

Period Number	15 min interval	kWh	Charge	Discharge
1	0-25	-810	810
2	25-46	+2050		2050
3	46-62	-1950	1950
4	62-74	+445		445
5	74-95	-1450	1450
6	95-96	+100		100
Total			4210	2595

Cost Saving Benefits

With a generator cost of US$80,000, requiring annual fuel costs of US$361,192, and annual maintenance costs at US$94,718, the annual cost to run a generator is US$455,910 per year.

With a 500kW/2228kWh BESS to replace the 500 kW diesel generator, it completely eliminates the recurring fuel and maintenance costs and has a payback period of just under 4 years.