One of the largest standalone battery-based energy storage systems in Europe is being installed on an island in the Azores.

Siemens Smart Infrastructure, in partnership with Fluence, has been awarded a contract by Portuguese energy supplier EDA, to build the energy storage system on Terceira, believed to be the second biggest island in terms of electrical consumption of the Azores archipelago.

The Gridstack system will have a power capacity of 15MW and will enable an increased share of renewable energy while limiting the consumption of fossil fuels and significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the autonomous region of Portugal.

It will regulate frequency and voltage of the electrical grid, increase security of supply and absorb and store excess energy produced by renewable sources and feed it back into the grid during times of peak consumption or low production.

Replacing a part of the diesel-based power supply with renewables is expected to result in a reduction of 1,150 tons in annual diesel consumption and a fall in CO2 emissions by more than 3,500 tons a year.

That roughly corresponds to the emissions of around 1,500 cars driving approximately 20,000km a year.

Duarte José Botelho da Ponte, Chairman of the Board of Directors of EDA said: “This enables us to set out an optimised operation strategy and reach an optimal balance between consumption and production of energy and increase the security of supply for our customers.

“With the storage technology in combination with the microgrid application, we aim to maximise the integration of renewable energy sources on Terceira. At the same time, we would like to ensure a power supply at the highest standards of quality and reliability.”