Enel’s Second Life EV storage system optimises used batteries

Electricity and gas manufacturer and distributor Enel has started operating its ‘Second Life’ project, which combines 78 Nissan electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Forty-eight of these are disused and 30 are brand new for performance comparison.

The project is being implemented at a conventional power plant in Melilla, Spain, operated by Enel’s Spanish subsidiary Endesa.

The Second Life project was developed by Enel in collaboration with Nissan, which provided the batteries, and Loccioni, a system integrator that secured proper integration between batteries.

The Second Life project is based on circular economy principles and selected as a ‘member initiative’ by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

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EV batteries as energy source

The project uses EV batteries as a source of energy, interconnecting and storing them at Endesa’s Melilla facility. It has a capacity of 4MW and can produce up to 1.7MWh.

Should the power plant be disconnected from the system, the storage facility can inject energy into Melilla’s electricity grid for 15 minutes, which is enough time to reset the system and restart the power supply.

Salvatore Bernabei, CEO of Enel Green Power, commented on the announcement in a statement, “The development of storage technology is key if we want to foster greater renewable penetration in our energy systems, so we can truly shape the power generation of the future.

“This project demonstrates that, in line with the Open Innovation principles, we can find solutions for the management of the end of life of essential equipment such as batteries, a topic which is at the core of the sustainable energy issue.”

Second Life also represents a breakthrough in the life extension of EV batteries.

When each battery pack is removed from an EV, it is then placed directly in the overall storage system exactly as it was placed in the vehicle. This is done without the need for disassembling each pack down to the single cell level, making the whole process simpler, safer and cheaper.

Project Pioneer

Another project leveraging on the second life of electric car batteries is being deployed by Enel X Global Retail, the Enel Group advanced energy solutions business line, in Italy.

Thanks to a partnership between Enel X Global Retail and ADR (Aeroporti di Roma, Airports of Rome), second-life batteries from EVs will be integrated into a 30MW solar park being built at Rome Fiumicino Airport, which is set to help drastically reduce emissions at the airport.

The project, called Pioneer, has been awarded a grant of more than €3 million ($3.3 million) from the EU’s Innovation Fund. It involves the construction of a 10MWh storage system based on EV batteries from multiple car manufacturers in their second-life cycle. Strong focus is placed on interoperability, system cost optimization and advanced software operation. The batteries will be used to store the excess energy produced by the solar plant and cover evening energy demand peaks at the airport, while also providing services to the grid.