Page 12 - AfrElec Week 12 2022

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Endesa to use second-hand

Nissan batteries to improve

grid stability

MELILLA SPAIN’S Endesa (part of Italy’s Enel) will use whole process simpler, safer and cheaper”.
second-hand Nissan batteries to improve grid The Second Life project has been selected
stability in Melilla. as a “member initiative” by the World Eco-
Enel has just launched its Second Life pro- nomic Forum (WEF) and has already received
ject, which combines 78 Nissan electric vehicle important recognition in 2020 with the BASF
(EV) batteries, 48 of which are obsolete and 30 Award – Club of Excellence in Sustainability, in
of which are completely new, to compare their the category of Best Circular Economy Practice
performance, at Endesa’s thermal power plant for Large Companies. This award recognises
(TPP) in Melilla, Spain’s exclave in North Africa the best circular economy practices in Spain,
that is surrounded by Morocco. rewarding projects that address the challenges
The Second Life project, whose ultimate goal of limited natural resources in different circular
is to improve the stability of the Melilla grid, has business models.
been developed by Enel in collaboration with The Second Life project has a capacity of 4
Nissan, which has provided the batteries, and MW and can produce up to 1.7 MWh. In the
Loccioni, a system integrator, that has ensured event that the plant were disconnected from the
the correct integration between the batteries. system, the storage facility could inject energy
The project uses advanced technology based on a into the Melilla electricity grid for 15 minutes,
simple idea: when the useful life of an EV battery enough time to restore the system and restart the
comes to an end, these batteries are recycled and electricity supply. Melilla has a local electricity
assembled in a large fixed storage system. network that is fed by the Endesa power plant
According to Enel, this project not only rep- and is isolated from the national distribution
resents “a great advance in extending the useful network. The Second Life project aims to meet
life of electric vehicle batteries”, but also “has an the same needs for an isolated grid that the Enel
added innovative component: when each bat- Group, to which Endesa belongs, had previously
tery pack is removed from an electric vehicle, it met on the island of Ventotene in Italy, using a
is placed directly in the general storage system, 300-kW storage system integrated into the local
exactly as it is done in an electric vehicle, without power plant.™
the need to disassemble the batteries, making the

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