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Regenesys Electricity Storage Technology
Figure 6
5kW Regenesys Cell-Stack
EPRI Proprietary Licensed Material
For their efforts on plant design, Innogy contracted with AGRA Birwelco Bristol (an architectengineer,
A&E) in the UK, and collaborated with this contractor to try to optimally design a
Regenesys energy storage plant. An A&E also assisted with the design of the Regenesys 1MW
test facility at the Aberthaw Power Station in South Wales, UK, at which several 100kW
modules can be simultaneously tested. This facility has been in operation since the late 1990s.
More recently, Innogy has established an alliance (business arrangement unknown) with ABB so
that AC-DC-AC converters and associated electrical equipment can be supplied together with the
Regenesys energy storage component. Apparently, ABB have adapted the IGBT architecture the
company has developed for other applications (Flexible AC Transmission Systems or FACTS;
Golden Valley Electric Association’s nickel cadmium battery energy storage facility) so that it is
specifically optimized for Regenesys.
In addition to these development efforts, Innogy have expended significant resources in
marketing the Regenesys technology. Included in this part of the work is a significant effort to
try to establish the economic value for their energy storage technology.
As far as can be told from what Innogy has said since the beginning of 2001, at which point (see
Bibliography) the company clamped down on most public pronouncements on the status of their
programs, the development programs of the 1990s have continued until the present time, and are
still continuing. We estimate that Innogy have expended somewhere in the range of $40 million
to $120 million on development and initial commercialization of the Regenesys technology.
Demonstration Projects
Beginning in late 1990s, Innogy started a serious effort to find a demonstration site for the
Regenesys technology. The first choice was a 100MWh/10MW plant for energy arbitrage to be
sited at the Didcot power station in the United Kingdom (see Bibliography) but this was
abandoned when Innogy sold this generating plant. Innogy have announced that by mid 2003
they should have completed construction and acceptance testing of a 15MW (18MVA) 120MWh
Regenesys demonstration electricity storage plant at the Little Barford power station in the
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