en.Wedoany.com Reported - EDF Power Solutions, a subsidiary of Électricité de France (EDF), has commissioned a virtual power plant named Stockage Énergie Catalan (SEC) in Baixas, Pyrénées-Orientales, France. The facility combines battery storage with hydropower to provide frequency regulation and real-time grid support services.
The virtual power plant has a total capacity of 28 MW, of which 20 MW comes from lithium-ion battery storage and 8 MW from ten run-of-river hydropower plants located in southern France. Unlike conventional power plants, SEC operates as a virtual power plant, coordinating physical assets through a digital platform that manages them as a single flexible generation facility. The system integrates four battery containers in Baixas with a network of hydropower plants operated by EDF Hydro, all connected via an intelligent energy management platform developed by EDF's R&D team, which monitors available power, battery state of charge, and grid demand in real time. EDF stated that this project is the group's first battery storage facility operated in mainland France.
The primary objective of the facility is to provide frequency stability support for the power system managed by French transmission system operator RTE. SEC acts as an ultra-fast power reserve, capable of injecting or absorbing electricity almost instantly. According to EDF, the system can respond to RTE signals within 500 milliseconds, reach maximum power within 30 seconds, sustain service for up to 15 minutes, and inject or absorb power based on grid operational needs. The operating sequence is designed to leverage the strengths of both technologies: batteries provide near-instantaneous response during disturbances, while hydropower plants gradually take over service over longer periods. The architecture developed by EDF utilizes complementary coordination through advanced algorithm-based management. Catherine Bourg, storage coordinator at EDF Power Solutions, stated that the uniqueness of this project lies precisely in this combination.
EDF stated that Stockage Énergie Catalan demonstrates how digitalization and technology hybridization can transform power system operations: real-time coordination between batteries and geographically dispersed hydropower plants creates a flexible infrastructure capable of responding to any event within fractions of a second.
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