Energy group Enel has started operating a 4 MW/1.7 MWh back-up energy storage system at a plant in Spain’s North Africa territory using 78 reused Nissan electric vehicle batteries.

The “Second Life” project is located in a conventional power plant in Melilla, operated by the company’s Spanish subsidiary, Endesa.

The Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) uses 48 disused EV batteries and another 30 new batteries included for performance comparison and was assembled by system integrator Loccioni.

The company says each battery removed from the vehicle is placed directly into the global storage system exactly as it was in the vehicle, with no need to disassemble it.

Melilla is located in a Spanish enclave on the Moroccan coast and the electricity needs of its 90,000 inhabitants are served by a local micro-grid powered by the Endesa power station. In the event of a disconnection from the power plant, the BESS will be able to inject electricity into the Melilla microgrid for 15 minutes, allowing the plant to reset and restart the power supply from the grid.

This will help Melilla’s power grid operator avoid load shedding events, improve grid reliability and ensure continuity of grid service for the local population, Enel said.

The company says its advanced energy solutions segment Enel X Global Retail is also working on a project to build a 10 MWh BESS using disused EV batteries, from multiple vehicle brands, at a 30 MW solar park at the Rome Fiumicino airport.

Second-life projects using EV batteries for various use cases are springing up in the industry. An expert recently wrote a guest blog on energy-storage.news saying up to 30% of EV batteries can be reused and US national lab UL is studying the technology in partnership with Hyundai.

Just last week, Jaguar Land Rover launched a 125kWh mobile BESS solution for electric vehicle charging that used batteries from its Jaguar I-PACE SUV. This production required dismantling with 85% reused materials, but a mobile solution will need to take up less space than a fixed solution.

And earlier this year, second-life Audi EV batteries from its e-tron range were used to supply a 4.5 MWh BESS at a pumped hydroelectric energy storage (PHES) power plant in North Rhine-Westphalia. -Westphalia managed by the energy group RWE. The company said the batteries still had 80% of their residual capacity when removed from the car.

energy-storage.news has asked Enel for an equivalent figure for Nissan’s EV batteries and will update this story when a substantial response is received.

Enel says its renewable arm Enel Green Power is the largest private renewable energy company with 54 GW of renewable energy generation assets, along with 300 MW of storage and 80 MW of behind-the-meter storage facilities at this day.