INERCO’s new technological proposal Energy Management and Storage Centers (CAGES)

INERCO has presented a new technological proposal in the energy field, focused on the electricity generation sectors and all types of industry, to optimise its integration in the current context of decarbonisation of its processes. INERCO‘s Energy Management and Storage Centers (CAGES) are an innovative solution in the field of energy optimisation through a technology that allows – from surplus electricity or low-temperature heat – to store electrical energy for later use, or to transform it into other sources, such as hydrogen, steam, heat, cold or synthetic fuels (e-fuels).

The CAGES arise as a technological response to the new figures established in the draft of the Climate Change and Energy Transition Law (Storage, Demand Aggregator and Hybridization), a document that contains a series of provisions for inclusion in the new Electricity Sector Law.

Vicente Cortés, President of INERCO: “this new innovative commitment in the area of energy is a response to the need for greater and better use of the energy generated in photovoltaic, solar and wind plants, but also of the energy surpluses from the treatment of biomass, residual heat, including the capture and use of CO2”.

“The added value of our CAGES lies not only in their capacity to aggregate and deliver electricity on demand, but also in the multiple possibilities of transformation into other energy sources through modular technology that can be extended in capacity, with advanced management systems that govern the whole“, says Vicente Cortés.

Thus, the CAGES proposed by INERCO include technologies for renewable energy generation, electric energy storage, electrolysers for hydrogen production, thermal and thermochemical storage systems, as well as heat pumps and CO2 conversion, technologies currently demanded by the national and international energy market.

Of note among its main applications are the so-called ‘power to power’ and ‘power to X’ systems, which can be X e-fuels such as hydrogen or methanol, heat, or other energy vectors. These applications are of special interest to facilitate the integration of new photovoltaic, wind and biomass-based renewable sources, as well as the hybridization of combined cycle power plants with renewable sources.

One aspect of special interest is that these facilities can be located on the sites of former coal-fired power plants, allowing the use of part of their assets and facilitating the conversion of these industrial areas.

As acknowledged by the President of INERCO, “the CAGES will allow for greater penetration and integration of energy from renewable sources, a greater contribution of firm power, stability of demand, better system response and lower CO2 emissions; while at the same time promoting the reduction of discharges and profitability by favouring an industrial symbiosis, in which producers and buyers are united through this system”.