Written by Duncan Nicol, Sales & Marketing Manager- Device Connections

Much has been written and discussed in the last year about the shift to a more sustainable energy future. Central to this topic is the ability to store energy for use when demand is high. Battery storage is part of the solution and has some key advantages over other forms of energy storage.

Back when coal was king, we would store energy in massive coal slag heaps and burn when needed. For fast power delivery when demand was high, one approach was pumped storage hydropower, but this needed a reservoir at the top of a mountain to pump and store the water.

The big advantages of batteries are that they can be put where you need them, no mountain required, and they are incredibly good at delivering power to the grid fast and on demand. As a result, we will see a dramatic rise in grid scale battery storage located close to wind farms and solar arrays to capture the energy ready for when needed. Batteries are especially useful for renewable energy as supply and demand are often not synchronised.

These Grid scale batteries are designed to last for several decades and need to be reliable and easy to maintain. Therefore, the connection technology deployed needs to make installation and maintenance easy, fast and safe.

At Phoenix Contact we understand the technical challenges of developing small and grid scale battery storage solutions and have developed several connection solutions to match.

For more information please visit our website or contact Duncan on 07799 072 059 or email dnicol@phoenixcontact.com