A shipment of 120 MC Cube-T battery energy storage system (bess) cabinets set sail to Saudi Arabia from Beibu Gulf Port in Guangxi, China on 27 April, according to Shenzhen-based BYD Energy Storage. National Grid Saudi Arabia, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), awarded Saudi firm Alfanar Company and China's BYD the contract to build and install five bess facilities with a total combined installed capacity of up to 2,500MW, equivalent to a rated capacity of up to 12,500 megawatt-hours (MWh), in January this year. Alfanar will undertake the project's engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) while BYD Energy Storage will undertake the contract for the design; supply; supervision of installation, testing and commissioning; and maintenance of the bess plants. The 12.5 gigawatt-hour (GWh) project will be the world’s largest grid-scale energy storage deployment, requiring 2,364 system cabinets in total. These cabinets will be making a "transoceanic journey" to Saudi Arabia, supporting the Gulf state's green energy transition, BYD Energy Storage said. The planned facilities, each with a capacity of 500MW or about 2,000MWh, are located in or in proximity to the following cities and load centres: Riyadh Qaisumah Dawadmi Al-Jouf Rabigh The EPC contract value is over $2bn. The scope includes the construction of bess substations and associated infrastructure. The main applications for the planned bess facilities include load shifting, black start, frequency regulation and voltage support. They are expected to replace part-load operation of existing power plants by charging and discharging electricity according to system load variations and primary and secondary reserves, among other potential applications The five bess plants bring BYD's total deployments in Saudi Arabia to about 15.1GWh, the firm said. It deployed its bess products on Saudi Arabia's first on-grid bess plant in Bisha, one of 17 projects globally with a capacity of over 1GWh that entered operations in 2024. To date, 21.7GWh of capacity is under construction in Saudi Arabia and is expected to be completed by the end of the year, with more under way. Surging growth The overall capacity of deployed bess facilities globally is expected to reach 127GW by 2027, up from an estimated cumulative deployment of 36.7GW at the end of 2023, according to GlobalData. The global information services provider named Chinese companies BYD and CATL, along with South Korean companies LG Energy Solutions and Samsung SDI, among the top battery technology providers globally. Carmakers Tesla, Volkswagen, Stellantis, General Motors, Mitsubishi Motors and Hyundai were identified as the key end-markets for battery products to date. GlobalData expects battery energy storage deployment to increase “due to a large number of countries opting for battery storage systems to enhance their power sector transformation”. (ICE RIYADH)

Fonte notizia: Meed