Germany – Electricity transmission system operator, TenneT BV* of Arnhem, The Netherlands and Daimler AG of Stuttgart, through its Mercedes-Benz Energy GmbH subsidiary, via a joint development partnership have announced they have researched and tested the feasibility of using used electric vehicle batteries as ‘second life’ storage devices of electricity in the national grid. The partnership states the results of this research were ground breaking and shows that automobile battery storage systems can be used to take over tasks from large-scale power plants and make a significant contribution towards power grid stabilisation and system recovery.

The partnership produced a prototype battery storage system made up of automotive second-life and replacement batteries with a total connected load of approximately one megawatt (1MW) and a storage capacity of 750 kilowatt hours (750kWh), which was installed at the Daimler’s battery test centre at its battery production subsidiary, Deutsche Accumotive GmbH & Co KG (est. 2009), in Kamenz.