With its sophisticated cooling machines, DTE enables the safe and reliable generation of green electricity!

The switch from electrical energy generation by using fossil fuels such as gas, oil and coal to sustainable electricity generation (wind, solar, biogas and nuclear energy) comes with technical challenges. DTE also plays an important role in this energy transfer with its cooling solutions.

The current generation of electrical energy still largely takes place with large power plants, of which on and off switching, based on the energy requirement, is a process of hours if not days. The coordination of the generation and consumption of electricity is therefore a complex story at an European level. Ultimately, the goal is to provide a qualitative so-called “Grid” for the users. The quality requirements for the Grid are a stable voltage and frequency (230V/400V/50Hz).

Because the share of sustainable electricity generation is currently around 30% of the total amount of electricity generated, the challenge to provide a high-quality Grid increases.

After all, sustainable generation is subject to the whims of mother nature, windless and cloudy conditions can influence sustainable electricity generation on a large scale, both negatively and positively.

Several DTE customers have come up with smart solutions for the challenges described, the most common solution is linking a battery system to the (local) Grid. If there is a surplus of generation energy, a battery system can be charged, and vice versa, if there is a shortage, it can be supplied back to the Grid at lightning speed and thus keep it within the stability requirements.

Regardless of the size of the battery system, thermal management is always of great importance for the safe and reliable operation of the system. During charging and discharging, considerable heat is generated by the internal resistance, highly dependent on the speed/capacity at which this happens. The trend of faster charging and discharging, together with increasingly compact construction, means that cooling can actually only be done with the medium “water”. Cooling channels run at battery cell level through the batteries to adequately cool the battery and prevent a so-called Thermal Runaway.

For this purpose reliable and highly customized DTE cooling machines are the solution.