UKRI-3443 Battery Energy Storage System for the ASPIRE-II Project

Tender description

The ASPIRE II project aims to create an Ammonia Synthesis Plant powered solely by renewable energy. It aims to prove the plant's reliability in off-grid settings with varying climates. Featuring four main subsystems and the capability to adjust ammonia production based on available renewable power, the Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) seeks to manage fluctuations between plant consumption and variable renewable energy sources. Lot 1: The Ammonia Synthesis Plant using Intermittent Renewable Energy 2 (ASPIRE II) project is a demonstration plant which will be built to generate green ammonia using only renewable energy sources. The goal of the project is to prove the system can operate reliably in off grid locations with varying climates. The plant includes four main subsystems, a nitrogen generator, a hydrogen generator, a flexible ammonia synthesis loop and a thermal store. A key requirement of the plant is that the ammonia production rate can be flexed in proportion to the available renewable power. The response rate of the largest load, the electrolyser, is of the order 2 seconds and consumes some 80% of the energy required for the plant. This response rate is key to facilitating tracking of the renewable power however we expect some imbalance between plant power consumption and available renewable power especially when the available renewable power fluctuates rapidly. We envisage the BESS will bridge these imbalances and that the charge status of the BESS will be used as a signal to control the plant generation rate. The demonstrator will be built at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire.