Updates on StoRIES // July 2024

Since December 2023, the work within the StoRIES project work packages have been working on various topics. Here is a summary of what has been achieved since the last update:

Work packages:

WP1 developed a collaboration between The StoRIES project and ViMi Labs at FZ J to enhance FAIR metadata creation and data exchange for the energy storage community. This initiative, led by Dr. Massimo Celino at ENEA (Italy) under WP1-T1.4, ensures open access for academic and scientific users and exclusive access for StoRIES members.  ViMi Labs' database management infrastructure streamlines data-to-knowledge translation, enabling StoRIES partners to develop structured, FAIR data catalogs, analyse datasets, and propose ontologies for selected energy storage technologies. The dedicated platform will manage data, accelerate collection, automate ingestion, and perform smart data curation and intelligence, aiding in achieving the project's FAIR data management objectives.

WP1 also organised an online workshop inviting five EU-funded projects, active in the domain of hybrid energy storage (AGISTIN, ECHO, MeBattery, HYBRIDplus, and HYBRIS) to explore their promising role in enhancing grid resilience and reliability. In the second part of the workshop, it was discussed the gaps and opportunities in AI-ready data for grid-scale storage technologies. The recording is available here and you can check the presentation here.

Following the very successful four calls for Transnational Access (TNA), WP2 opened the fifth in March and closed in May 2024. This tender was the last to provide access to physical infrastructures, as project funding for this activity is limited. The summary of all TNA results will be published on the StoRIES website by the end of the year, and an overview of the research on hybrid energy storage supported by StoRIES will be provided.

The sixth and last StoRIES call will enable Virtual Access to StoRIES research infrastructures and concentrate on solutions for hybrid energy storage systems and devices. The call will open in October 2024. Further information can be found here.

WP3 has launched the preparation of a book focused on hybrid energy storage, which will include comprehensive case studies, as well as the second version of the Roadmap and Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA). Moreover, assessment and analysis tools (from materials to device) were developed and added to the digital platform, and are ready for validation with datasets from the project partners. Further progress has been made in Energy Storage System Modelling, with the case description and electrical design in MATLAB Simulink completed. Finally, the best working group in the Summer School organised in Rome has been selected to contribute to the writing process of the Roadmap and SRIA.

WP4 deals with sustainability aspects of hybrid energy storage (HES) and addresses the following challenges: need to improve understanding of the optimal storage portfolio​, need to improve understanding of the operating environment to accelerate the deployment of grid-scale long-duration and seasonal energy storage​, and need to harmonise different methodologies and tools to assess the technical and socio-economics performance (including environmental impacts) of the energy storage technologies.

This WP developed deliverable 4.2, a document that aims to provide a common base for environmental, techno-economic, and socioeconomic assessments to unlock the potential applications for hybrid ESSs. Exploiting the full potential of the hybrid ES concepts requires standardised assessment procedures for generating inferences about achieved improvement via hybridisation. Hence, the guidance needs to be provided on method selection to address sustainability aspects accurately, critical KPIs for the corresponding services, and data collection. This is realised via provided precise definitions for calculation procedures for the assessments or links to corresponding standards, publications, and reports. Based on this, the following aspects are covered: general guidelines for the sustainability assessments, identification of KPIs, and provision of an integrated sustainability assessment approach.

The deliverable is developed in a way to serve as a basis for D4.3: White paper on Sustainable Hybrid ES for the European Clean Energy Transition: Unlocking the Potential Applications for Hybrid ES.

WP4 also organised the interactive workshop "Setting up a common base for sustainability assessment to unlock the potential applications for hybrid energy storage systems". The goal was to test the use of such approaches and discovering their potential. Hence, the provided guidance in terms of required organizational preparations prior to and during such workshop serves here as a base for conducting analysis of various hybridization alternatives for different applications under consideration of the chosen sustainability framework attributes. Furthermore, the interactive means enabled by the use of the Helmholtz MCDA software supported the demonstration of methodological capacities and can be considered as a robust utility for supporting such analysis.

Since January 2024, WP5 has published 4 articles, highlighting the main activities and results of the project, one of those articles included an interview with Panagiotis Lykas: PhD candidate at the National Technical University of Athens, Greece for the StoRIES transnational access programme. WP5 plan to publish the Final Communication and Dissemination Master Plan in October 2024.

WP6 completed four main activities between the 24th and 30th months of the StoRIES project. In December 2023, StoRIES organised the "Hybrid Energy Storage Days" in Vienna, a joint event with EERA JP Energy Storage. This event included the fifth StoRIES project meeting, the second workshop on sustainability assessment for hybrid energy storage within Work Package 4 as well as the EERA JP ES Steering Committee meeting No.23. In January 2024, the first interim payment was successfully processed following the completion of the first reporting period, ensuring the continuation of project activities. In March 2024, as part of the RISEnergy ecosystem, StoRIES participated in the kick-off meeting of the RISEnergy project in Brussels, which focused on fostering cooperation and synergies between different renewable energy technologies and systems. Finally, in May 2024, we successfully expanded the selection panel by adding 14 new members.