IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 22, NO.

3, AUGUST 2007

1259

Optimizing a Battery Energy Storage

System for Primary Frequency Control
Alexandre Oudalov, Daniel Chartouni, and Christian Ohler, Member, IEEE

AbstractThis paper presents a method for the dimensioning

of a battery energy storage system (BESS) to provide a primary
frequency reserve. Numerical simulations based on historic frequency measurements are used to determine the minimum possible
capacity, i.e., the lowest possible cost, which fulfills the technical
requirements of the grid code. We implement a novel control algorithm with adjustable state of charge limits and the application
of emergency resistors. At current European market prices, an optimized lead-acid BESS can be a profitable utility solution for the
primary frequency control.
Index TermsAncillary service market, battery energy storage,
net present value, primary frequency control.

I. INTRODUCTION

Fig. 1. Principal diagram of the BESS.

OWER systems currently undergo considerable change

in operating requirementsmainly as a result of deregulation and due to an increasing amount of discontinuous
distributed generation. Additionally, continuing load growth
and increasing regional power transfer in interconnected networks lead to stressed and less secure power system operation.
This has triggered interest both from transmission system operators and power utilities in large-scale battery energy storage
systems. While battery energy storage technologies can cover a
wide spectrum of applications, ranging from short time power
quality support to hours-long energy management, the supply
of primary control reserve has been identified as the application
with the highest value for the owner of the battery energy
storage system (BESS) [1]. The profitability of this application
was established by comparing frequency control reserve prices
on ancillary service markets with realistic installation and
maintenance costs of BESS units.
Previous research and practical installations [2][8] have
technically shown that a BESS can provide frequency regulation indeed. The BESS unit absorbs energy when the system
frequency is above a nominal value and discharges this energy
back into the grid when the frequency is below the nominal
value. The main driving forces for these BESS prototypes,
however, were either special system reliability requirements
or the testing of new technology. The batteries were usually
over-dimensioned, so that the total BESS cost was too high to
allow a monetary payback for the installations. In contrast to
this, we treat here BESS units that are commercially viable at
current market conditions. This paper provides a method for
Manuscript received January 17, 2007. Paper no. TPWRS-00029-2007.
The authors are with ABB Switzerland Ltd., Corporate Research Center,
CH-5405 Daettwil-Baden, Switzerland (e-mail: alexandre.oudalov@ch.abb.
com).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRS.2007.901459

minimizing the BESS capacity and as a result for minimizing

the BESS installation cost. The method is based on historic frequency data, and the BESS capacity is minimized with a novel
control algorithm that has adjustable state of charge limits.
Emergency resistors are an essential component of an optimal BESS for primary frequency control. They dissipate energy during rare events when an extreme over-frequency excursion occurs while the BESS happens to be fully charged: it
would be uneconomic to size the batteries for such a rare event
of extreme over-frequency excursion. Because there is a conflict between the objective to minimize the BESS cost and the
objective to minimize the use of the emergency resistors, the
latter condition enters as a side constraint (sometimes called a
budget constraint) in the optimization procedure.
The outline of this paper is as follows: Section II gives a
brief overview of commercially available BESS technologies;
Section III describes principles of primary frequency control in
Europe; Section IV explains the economic valuation of a BESS
unit for such application. Section V presents the BESS capacity
minimization and corresponding BESS operating strategy.
II. BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEM
All commercially available BESS have a similar system
design: batteries are connected to a power conversion system
(PCS) that converts a variable dc voltage of the battery to a
three-phase ac voltage of the utility (see Fig. 1). Four types of
batteries have been considered in this study (see Table I).
The cost of BESS units per power unit is a strong function
of their (energy) capacity, i.e., the maximum discharge time. To
calculate the total BESS cost (over the complete lifetime of 20
years), we add the cost of PCS to the net present value (NPV)
of costs of each BESS type, including needed cell replacements.

0885-8950/$25.00 2007 IEEE

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TABLE I
CHARACTERISTICS OF DIFFERENT BATTERIES

Fig. 3. Deployment of frequency control reserves in UCTE.

TABLE II
REQUIREMENTS FOR PRIMARY FREQUENCY CONTROL RESERVE IN UCTE

Fig. 2. NPV of cost for different types of 10-MW BESS and PHS versus variable capacity and NPV of profit (dashed horizontal line) obtained by selling
primary reserve in Germany.

Fig. 2 shows the NPV of cost for 10-MW BESS units as a function of BESS capacity.
The NPV of cost for a pumped hydro storage (PHS) plant is
plotted on the same diagram for comparison. PHS is the unbeatable storage solution for a discharge time higher than 0.75 h in
comparison to any BESS technology; however, its application is
very limited due to geographical and environmental constraints.
Among batteries, lead-acid BESS is the most economic solution
for a discharge time up to 1.25 h.
Fig. 2 anticipates results for the market price for the primary
reserve service and results for the capacity minimization to be
discussed below.

The electric power system is unique in that power production

and consumption must be matched instantaneously and continuously. Disturbances in this balance cause a deviation of system
frequency from a set-point value and reduce the quality of power
supply. Therefore, each power system operator is obliged to
maintain a sufficient amount of active power in reserve to compensate for the worst credible contingency (loss of the largest
generation or transmission facility).

system operators (TSOs) members of the Union for the Co-ordination of Transmission of Electricity (UCTE) (synchronous
interconnection of central European countries) to achieve the
required generation-load balance (see Fig. 3).
A deviation of system frequency will cause primary controllers of all generators subject to primary control to respond
within a few seconds to stop frequency drop/rise. Requirements
for primary reserve in UCTE are shown in Table II [13]. Since
the early days of UCTE, the primary frequency control was a
mandatory service organized through the vertically integrated
electrical utilities making all large thermal and hydro units
MW) available for the provision of primary reserve.
(
During the last decade, markets for ancillary services have
been established in many European countries. Under free
market conditions, the control philosophy is still respected, but
the TSOs do not exercise direct authority over the power plants.
Other entities such as loads, distributed generation, and energy
storage have the right, not an obligation, to offer frequency
control reserves as long as they fulfill technical and commercial requirements set by the TSO. Currently, primary reserve
markets are local; cross border reserve markets, however, are
being discussed and will be established in the near future [14].

A. Frequency Control Reserves in UCTE

B. Primary Frequency Control Market Mechanism

Three types of reserves performed in different successive

steps are maintained to help Central European transmission

In case of primary frequency control, the TSO pays for the

mere availability of control power. There is no utilization pay-

III. PRIMARY FREQUENCY CONTROL RESERVE

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years in Germany is slightly less than 14 million (Euro). Comof the

paring this figure to the total cost over 20 years,
battery technologies, we note that the 10-MW lead acid BESS
is a profitable solution ifand only ifthe BESS capacity can
stay smaller than 9 MWh.
The owner of the BESS unit would attempt to minimize the
BESS capacity in order to maximize his profit. It is the main
object of this paper, and in particular the next section, to calculate the minimum size neededsuch that the BESS is never
completely discharged and 100% of the time able to provide the
contracted primary reserve power.
V. BESS DIMENSIONING
Fig. 4. Prices for primary frequency control reserve in Germany in 2001-2007.

ment proportional to the actual amount of energy supplied or

consumed. All suppliers are paid a fixed price for the whole
tendering period per kW of standby reserve. Thus, the reserve
availability payment can be calculated as a product of contracted
reserve power in kW, the primary reserve price (Euro/kW/period), and the tendering period (1). The primary reserve price is
based on the final accepted bid submitted to the TSO as follows:
Payment

Reserve Price

Period

(1)

The German market for primary frequency reserve has been established in 2001 and has the longest historic records in UCTE.
Awarding of contracts for the provision of primary reserve is
realized in a nondiscriminatory manner on the basis of public
tenders. Fig. 4 illustrates the results of tenders in four German
TSOs starting from 2001. The current average price for primary
reserve is about 60 Euro/kW/six month. Thus, the annual payMW in Germany is
ment for keeping a primary reserve of
120 k Euro.
IV. ECONOMIC VIABILITY OF BESS APPLICATION
FOR PRIMARY FREQUENCY CONTROL RESERVE
To determine the economic viability of BESS application
for primary frequency control, the total revenue from selling
must be compared with capital, operating,
reserve
and maintenance (O&M) costs over the BESS life cycle
Profit

(2)
Revenue
Cost

(3)
(4)

In these equations, is the BESS life cycle and the disyears,

%). Revenue and Cost
count rate (here
are annual values. The revenues depend on the primary reserve
prices and are subject to uncertainty. In this work, we use revenues of 120 Euro/kW/year. Looking back to Fig. 2 provides a
first impression on the potential benefit of the BESS application.
from selling
MW of primary reserve during 20

To determine the minimal BESS capacity, we have modeled

the actual BESS operation and adapted the operating algorithm
to measured frequency data of the UCTE grid. The minimal conceivable BESS capacity for the contracted primary reserve
is limited to 0.25
hours, since the BESS has to furnish primary reserve for at least 15 min (see Table II). The realistic minimum will be higher because primary control events can follow
each other at short intervals so that there is not enough time to
recharge the BESS. For this reason, the recharge strategy has
a strong influence on the optimization result. Another issue is
the use of emergency resistors. While they help to reduce the
needed capacity of the BESS unit by dissipating energy during
rare events when an extreme frequency excursion occurs while
the BESS happens to be fully charged, we propose to use them
as infrequently as possible. This goal enters as a side condition
into the optimization. It would be neither an environmental nor
an economic optimum to avoid emergency resistors completely.
A. UCTE Frequency Profile
The measured UCTE frequency for several months of 2005
has been obtained from the Swiss coordinatorETRANS. Measurements have 1 Hz of sampling with less than 1 mHz of accuracy. Fig. 5 shows the measured UCTE frequency in April 2005.
The UCTE rules [13] specify the nominal frequency 50 Hz
and noncritical frequency window of
mHz. This window
allows avoiding a calling up of primary control at near nominal
frequency.
The main observation from this data is that the frequency
quality in UCTE is maintained very well. Most of the time
(70%), the frequency in UCTE stays within the noncritical
mHz. There are only few frequency excursions
window of
mHz per month. A frequency deviation of
outside of
mHz was never reached throughout the year 2005. High
and low frequency deviations are symmetrical over the long
period (month).
In the short term, however, there are many deviations, and
they are not necessarily balanced. They can occur at random
points in time with random amplitude and random repetition
rates. As the frequency deviates to values higher than 50.020
Hz, the primary frequency controller has to absorb power; as the
frequency deviates to values below 49.980 Hz, it has to supply
power (see the left-hand side of Fig. 6).
The power-frequency (p-f) characteristic of the primary
frequency controller is linear outside the noncritical frequency
window (see then right-hand side of Fig. 6). It is defined in the

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Fig. 5. Measured frequency in UCTE, April 2005. From a frequency quality

perspective, April 2005 was an average month.
Fig. 7. Primary reserve power curve, April 2005. Power supplied to the grid is
below zero (BESS in discharge mode). Power absorbed from the grid is above
zero (BESS in charge mode).

TABLE III
RESULTS OF STATISTIC ANALYSIS OF PRIMARY RESERVE POWER CURVE

Fig. 6. Power-frequency (p-f) characteristic of the BESS primary frequency

controller in accordance to the UCTE requirements [13].

grid code [13], which states that the full primary reserve
has to be activated when the frequency deviation
reaches
mHz. As an example, we choose a contracted primary
reserve Pn (nominal power of the BESS) of 2 MW, which is
0.06% of the total UCTE primary reserve. The BESS follows
the frequency profile; however, its influence on the frequency
is neglected.
The p-f characteristic permits the transformation of the measured frequency deviations into a required output/input power
for every second (see Fig. 7). The duration, the maximum power,
and the energy of each discharging/charging pulse have been analyzed in Table III.
B. Simulation of BESS Supplying Primary Reserve in UCTE
1) BESS With No Additional Charging: We start the analysis
with an unrealistic case for illustration purposes only: a BESS
with an efficiency of 70% that is charged and discharged only in
function of the frequency variation with no additional charging.
At the beginning of the month, the BESS is 100% charged, and
then, it supplies/absorbs power depending on the system frequency variation (see Fig. 7).
With the given p-f characteristic, the operating rules are very
simple:
Discharge the battery when
mHz.
mHz.
Charge the battery when

The curve named No recharge in Fig. 8 shows the change

in the BESS state of charge (SoC) upon furnishing primary frequency control reserve in April 2005. Due to the limited BESS
efficiency, the overall SoC trend leads to a continuous discharge
of the BESS in the long run. In this case, the minimum required
hours, a
BESS capacity for one month (April 2005) is 1.62
large and costly BESS capacity. This is of course not a practical operating strategy; the BESS must rather be recharged at
certain time periods in order to maintain a reasonable state of
charge during the course of operation.
2) BESS With Additional Charging: In a second stage, we
appended the operating rules in the following way:
Recharge the battery up to 100% when the frequency is
.
inside the noncritical window
Use a small recharge power (a few percent of ).
If the battery is full (100%), absorb power with auxiliary
resistors.
The required minimum BESS capacity is drastically reduced
with an increase in BESS recharge power. Fig. 8 shows the state
of charge of the BESS with efficiency 70% as a function of
. The higher
time and recharge power 1%, 3%, and 5% of

OUDALOV et al.: OPTIMIZING A BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEM FOR PRIMARY FREQUENCY CONTROL

Fig. 8. SoC of the BESS with efficiency 70%, no recharge, and recharge with
1%-5% of BESS nominal power, April 2005.

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enables the BESS to absorb more power if needed and reduces

the use of resistors. Additionally, there is a procedure incorporated into the control algorithm that allows selling relatively
small amounts of excessive energy on the intra-day market. The
main goal of the selling procedure is not to gain a profit but again
to keep the SoC parameter of the BESS between the two limits
and
.
The complete set of operating rules is the following:
mHz.
Discharge the battery when
mHz.
Charge the battery when
Discharge the battery (sell energy on the market) when
(maximum discharge power
%
actual
of ).
and
Recharge the battery when
. (maximum recharge power
% of ).
Dissipate energy in emergency resistors when
mHz and
%.
and
Idle the battery when
.
Operating rules with SoC limits allow a considerable decrease
in utilizing resistors to only a few times per month compared
to typically 10 000 operations (pulses) of the BESS during that
month, hence justifying the term emergency resistors.
C. Optimizing BESS Capacity

Fig. 9. Impact of recharge power on the BESS design and operation.

the recharge power, the higher the deepest state of charge and
the smaller the needed battery capacity.
There are, however, also disadvantages with a high recharge
power. With the high recharge power, the BESS is fully charged
most of the time and is not able to absorb power from the grid
in the case of a frequency rise above the noncritical window.
We use auxiliary resistors to dissipate power under these circumstances. This costs money. Energy has to be bought on the
market that could be obtained for free during the high frequency
periods.
Fig. 9 puts together two plots that demonstrate the impact of
the recharge power percentage on BESS design and operation.
The black line shows how the BESS capacity depends on the
recharge percentage. The BESS capacity is the minimum value
hours to ensure a further maximum disin Fig. 8 plus 0.25
charge event (15 min full nominal power) at the lowest statistically occurring level of charge.
The grey line in Fig. 9 shows how the total energy losses in
the auxiliary resistors during one month depend on the recharge
percentage.
3) BESS With Additional Charging and SoC Max/Min Limits:
If the target level for the state of charge is chosen slightly below
100%, we keep some charging reserve, and most of the events
can be avoided where energy would be dissipated in the resistors. Based on this idea, we have improved the BESS operating
strategy. The goal is now not to keep the battery 100% charged
but to keep it in a range between two defined SoC levels. This

The main objective is to maximize the profit for the potential

BESS owner acting at the ancillary service market. Because
the main cost driver is the battery capacity, the optimization
will be essentially equivalent to a minimization of the battery
capacity.
On the other hand, the use of emergency resistors is usually
considered negative because it means wasting useful energy.
This is a requirement that is opposed to our main optimization
goal and that constitutes conceptual difficulties. We let it enter
as a side condition. In this way, it is possible to express any
possible preference in that regard. The extremes may range
from putting no value to the resistively dissipated energy other
than its purchase price to putting a very high penalty factor
(e.g., 100) on this price to squeeze out the resistor use almost
completely. In our opinion, it is neither an environmental nor an
economic optimum, to avoid emergency resistors completely.
The annual values Revenue and Cost in (3) and (4) may be
expressed as (5) and (6), respectively
Revenue

Payment

(5)

Payment is the primary reserve availability payment (1).

is
the revenue from selling energy on intra-day market. Sold energy is the additional source of profit for the owner of the BESS,
although its monthly amount of energy will rarely exceed 0.1
hours
Cost

(6)

where
is the BESS installation and O&M cost.
is the
cost of recharge energy bought from the grid.
All parameters and variables used in the optimization are
grouped in Table IV.

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TABLE IV
BESS PARAMETERS AND VARIABLES FOR OPTIMIZATION

Fig. 10. Contour plot of the required battery capacity in P 3 h as a function of

. The lines that are schematthe variables sell power and the upper level SoC
ically shown in addition correspond to resistor losses of 5%, 10%, and 20% of
the total energy uptake into the BESS. Frequency data: April 2005.

TABLE V
RESULTS OF BESS CAPACITY OPTIMIZATION

The objective function is to maximize the profit (2)

Profit

Revenue - Cost
Payment
(7)

The method provides the optimal BESS capacity and can be

divided in two steps.
At the first step, the NPV of profit is calculated for each set
of combinations of the variables in the parameter range (see
Table IV). Simultaneously, for each set of combinations, we additionally calculate the battery capacity and resistor losses.
Fig. 10 shows a contour plot of the required battery capacity
as a function of the variables sell power and the upper
in
. For example, with a sell power of %
and
level
level of 0.04
, the required battery capacity is
a
. In this example the other variables (see Table IV)
0.625
are fixed to recharge power
%
and
.
It can be seen from Fig. 10 that the smaller the parameters
in other words the smaller the amount
sell power and
of sold energythe smaller the required battery capacity. This
is good for the total BESS cost because the battery capacity is
the main cost diver.
We indicate in the same plot contours of a fixed amount of
energy dissipated in the emergency resistors. It is clear that the
, the
smaller the parameters sell power and the higher
higher the resistor losses.
The second step is the search for the optimal BESS capacity
taking into account the energy losses in the resistors. Having no
mathematical formulation for penalty factor of using resistors,
we restricted the resistor losses to maximum 10% of the total
energy uptake into the BESS.

Fig. 11. Monthly SoC variation of the 2-MW BESS with adjusted SoC
max/min limits. Frequency data: April 2005.

The corresponding optimal BESS capacity is 0.62 h. Other

variables and outputs are listed in Table V. The corresponding
BESS state of charge profile is depicted in Fig. 11.
Fig. 12 illustrates the BESS operation algorithm for a period
of 32 h during April 2005. At the beginning of time interval,
Pn*h within the interval
the BESS SoC is at
. Next, there is a period with prevailing positive
frequency deviations so that the SoC moves above the

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1265

Fig. 13. BESS multi-strings layout and operating principle.

Fig. 12. Provision of primary reserve by the BESS in April 2005.

and a certain portion of energy is sold on the intra-day market.

This energy is delivered as constant power (Sell power in
Table IV) during one hour. It has to be scheduled at least 30
min in advance.
During this period, the frequency remains high, and the SoC
reaches 100%. Therefore, excessive energy is dissipated in
emergency resistors. Shortly after that period, the scheduled
power delivery starts, and it brings the SoC back into the SoC
target operating range. Then, there is a long interval with the
prevailing low system frequency. The SoC progressively goes
limit after some hours. At this
down and passes the
moment, the BESS control system issues a charging command
with an appropriate value (3% of ) during periods when the
frequency stays inside a noncritical window
.
Toward the end of the period, the system frequency is high, so
that the SoC comes back into the operating range by primary
control action itself.
D. Multi-String Operating Algorithm
The well-known operating rules for multi-string BESS units
can be applied to our control algorithm in a straightforward
manner (see Fig. 13). The BESS monitoring and control system
uses the frequency measurement and the SoC level as input
signals. The BESS is composed by a large number of battery
cells grouped into parallel strings. Each string is connected to
a common ac bus via an individual power conversion system.
Cells operate in two symmetric groups; one is used for the downward frequency regulation and another one for the upward frequency regulation. The two groups shift their roles at convenient
points in time. The consistent charging direction for each cell reduces the battery aging and prolongs the battery lifetime.
E. Dynamically Adjustable SoC-Limits
The BESS operating strategy might be further improved by
introducing dynamically adjustable SoC limits. Rules for the
adjustment of SoC min/max limits can be derived by the statistic
analysis of frequency measurements. Here we see trends in the
daily, weekly, and seasonal frequency variations.

Fig. 14. Average daily frequency variation during April 2005.

Fig. 14 represents the average daily frequency variation

during April 2005. It can be observed that the frequency varies
substantially during a transition from one hour to another, due
to a change in the electricity production schedule. This information can be used for a dynamic adjustment of SoC min/max
limits just before the change of the hour.
can be decreased during
As another example, the
the night hours because the system frequency is expected to be
rather high (see Fig. 14). The values of recharge and sell power
can also be adjusted dynamically in function of market conditions.
VI. CONCLUSION
The supply of a sufficient frequency control reserve is important to balance power system load and generation at any instant
for a secure and high-quality power supply. BESS are able to
satisfy the technical requirements for primary frequency control.
This paper provides a method for the dimensioning of a BESS
to provide primary reserve based on historic frequency measurements. A lead-acid BESS can be a profitable utility solution at

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current battery system costs and current market prices for the
provision of primary reserve capacity.
With rare use of emergency resistors, the optimum capacity is
0.62 h multiplied by the nominal power rating. For a cost-effective sizing, it is essential to use adjustable maximum and minimum state of charge limits, to recharge at moderate rate while
the system frequency is within the noncritical window, and to
sell some power to the intra-day market if the state of charge is
on the high side. An economically optimum BESS for primary
frequency control includes emergency resistors to dissipate energy during rare events when an extreme over-frequency excursion occurs while the BESS is fully charged.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank G. Linhofer (ABB Switzerland) and W. Sattinger (ETRANS) for their contributions.
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Alexandre Oudalov received the Ph.D. degree
in electrical engineering in 2003 from the Swiss
Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne (EPFL),
Lausanne, Switzerland.
Since 2004, he has been a Research Engineer in
the Information Technologies Department at ABB
Switzerland, Corporate Research, Daettwil-Baden,
Switzerland. His research interests include power
system control, distributed generation, energy
storage, and distribution automation.

Daniel Chartouni received the Ph.D. degree in solid

state physics from the University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.
He joined ABB Switzerland, Corporate Research,
Daettwil-Baden, Switzerland, in 2000 and is a Project
Leader in the Electro-technologies Department. His
areas of interest are devices for energy storage and
thermal management of power devices.

Christian Ohler (M06) received the Ph.D. degree in

semiconductor physics from the Technical University
of Aachen, Aachen, Germany.
He joined ABB Switzerland, Corporate Research,
Daettwil-Baden, Switzerland, in 1998 and is Group
Leader in the Electro-technologies Department. His
areas of interest are devices for energy storage and
switchgear.