Reeling in pain in my sick bed earlier this month, I came across some intriguing news: ESS, Inc., an Iron Flow battery company, will supply Sapele Power Plc (IPP) with a 1MW/8MWh capacity iron flow long-duration Battery Energy Storage System (BESS).
Partly financed by the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the BESS solution to Sapele IPP will enable load smoothing, peak demand shifting, and ramp up and down, all ancillary services in Nigeria's first grid-connected BESS project (Stand to be corrected).
While this is a novelty technology in the Nigerian electricity space, the business model behind this investment is clear, as Sapele IPP is chasing the ancillary market with intentionality in an audacious and unprecedented move.
Historically, the Sapele Power plant has underperformed compared to its "contemporaries" from NEPA days in the energy market. The plant's availability factor has consistently been below 15% (Generating <100MW on average vs 720MW installed capacity)
The capacity and energy market dominates the PPA in the NESI, with a seemingly non-existent ancillary services market (Ops reserves, FCAS, FFR, Black Start, Inertia, etc.).
Sapele IPP's investment in the BESS solution to support ramp up and down, "synthetic" spinning reserve and supplemental signal is a new but exciting development.
The BESS may also provide dispatchable power for grid frequency augmentation (FCAS or FFR) banking on stranded assets like the nearby Sapele NIPP for charging and possibly competitive ancillary services contract rates.
Incorporating BESS into the national grid will herald a wave of grid-connected VREs, which can help solve many issues by localizing capacity and generation and alleviating issues of T-line vandalism.
Significant chaos-forming changes are coming with the unbundling of the TRANSMISSION COMPANY OF NIGERIA to SO and TSP, and state electricity framework development necessitates a fortification of the electricity ancillary services market, which Sapele may be positioning for.
While much of this is speculative, introducing BESS into the NESI undoubtedly signals something new. Whatever it is, it is a good sign for the industry's development.
Good luck to the Sapele team with closeout, construction and commissioning.