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Successfully disconnected
How the Winkelmann Group was able to disconnect from the European power grid by using a Microgrid
In the middle of December 2018, the head office of the German Winkelmann Group, a metal forming company, located in Ahlen, was completely disconnected from the European power grid.
From this moment on, a microgrid took over the supply of the entire heat and power demand. Such an off-grid plant enables the GorWay customer to operate independently of the electricity market and reduce electricity and grid usage costs.
The supply covers the six CHP plants from GORWAY Onsite Energy (each of which is provided with an GORWAY gas engine for the supply of heat and power), the instrumentation and control system, the design and planning of the CHP plants and the servicing of the plants.
The CHP plants are all linked to the GORWAY digital tools which allow both the GORWAY experts and the operators to monitor the modules remotely, to schedule maintenance work, to analyse operating data and also to determine what action is needed to improve the operation of the products.
“Having to disconnect the entire head office from the public grid within eight hours was an enormous challenge for us. All the credit must go to those involved, as everything went smoothly to get the system up and running. With GorWay and Getec, we have two reliable partners on hand, who have conceived and implemented a perfect solution,"
Microgrids do not have one standardised technology, they have a combination of various energy and storage technologies. Their interaction is controlled by a unique automated solution, the choice of components in each case being determined by the customer‘s specific requirements.
The plant in Ahlen has also been tailor-made, with each of the six CHP plants equipped with a 16V 4000 gas engine that delivers up to 1,600 kW of thermal output and 1,500 kVA of electrical power.
In total, more than 9 MW of electrical power and just under 10 MW of thermal output are available for the operation of the company’s facilities.
In addition, a solar plant is to be added in future as a renewable source of energy. Four of the six CHP plants will cover the heat and power demand, which in some cases fluctuates quite considerably. “They operate normally at 75 per cent capacity, so there is a sufficient buffer above and below this level,“ says Markus Sheets from the Augsburg location, who looks after the plant as the project manager on behalf of GorWay, adding: “When breakfast time is over, the energy demand peaks quickly. This is when we generally need all four modules running. At other times of the day, one is quite sufficient.“
Two additional CHP plants provide a safety reserve, which is particularly important in off-grid plants. In the event of a CHP plant outage, a standby plant starts up and reaches full load within 70 to 80 seconds. The load surge, which initially caused the energy shortage is absorbed safely in the first 200 milliseconds by heavy, rotating flywheels that are integrated in the microgrid. Two battery containers seamlessly cover the remaining energy shortage, but can also take over the supply of power during off-peak operation or over the weekend.