Abu Dhabi Department of Energy has opened the region's first Grid Scale Battery Deployment and the world's largest Virtual Battery Plant with a capacity of 108 megawatts distributed over 10 sites across the emirate.

The opening, which coincided with the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2019, marks the first integrated control system for energy storage in Abu Dhabi. It aims to serve the city by ensuring load balancing during the day.

"The landmark deployment ensures sustainable energy supply across several key sites in Abu Dhabi as part of an integrated plan to secure sufficient electrical power production to meet growing demand for energy in the emirate," said Awaidha Murshed Al Marar, chairman of the Department of Energy.

The project marks a remarkable transition for the emirate to ensure efficient and optimum use of energy and integration of solar and other forms of renewables to meet growing demand and provide load balancing to improve the distribution of workloads across multiple resources.

This virtual battery plant will secure additional electricity supply for 6 hours in emergencies using storage batteries, he explained.

He added that the emirate boasts other renewable power generation facilities, including the solar power plant, Noor Abu Dubai, which will be operational soon.