Updated: A 10MW battery energy storage system (BESS), which will allow a 24MW wind farm to keep generating energy even in times of oversupply, officially went into service today near Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

The old stereotype of Holland as a country of windmills holds particularly true in this northerly region, where the old kind of windmills have been commonly used for centuries. The modern wind farm, on the Hartel canal, can produce 68GWh of electricity each year. When winds are high, this can mean the farm produces more electricity than the local network demands.

As it is, “the wind turbines might have to be turned down in order to prevent oversupply in the system,” Maurice Koenen, manager of sourcing and portfolio management at developer Greenchoice said.

“The wind energy can be stored in the batteries and delivered to the energy network at a later time. On top of that, the battery system can deliver smart energy services which help keep the European network in balance at 50Hz,” Koenen said.

A Spectral energy representative informed Energy-Storage.news following original publication of this story that the megawatt-hour capacity of the battery system - which will provide both load shifting from the wind farm and frequency regulation services - is 10MWh and that the system was supplied by electrical equipment and system integration company Alfen. A similar use case for a BESS was found at Prinses Alexia Windpark in the central Netherlands, where a 3MW wind power-integrating energy storage system using BMW car batteries, also delivered by the Euronext Stock Exchange-listed Dutch company Alfen.