As Germany transitions toward a renewable-dominated energy system, additional system inertia is needed to ensure frequency stability and grid resilience. A market to procure Inertia Services is currently being started.

The contribution will give an overview on the status of the inertia market – with regulatory, commercial and technical aspects being summarized. The contribution outlines the key performance metrics and how they interact with Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) plant design and revenue streams. A comparison of the long-term (10 year) market vs. the 1-year-ahead market in UK is provided.

A key aspect is the deployment of BESS optimized for inertia emulation. We highlight an innovative approach based on an inverter hardware platform that is optimized for inertia provision – being capable of delivering up to 18 GWs of synthetic inertia per 1 GW of rated power, by using the latest grid-forming controls and short-term peak power capabilities. This solution allows flexible service stacking in multi-use applications such as energy arbitrage, frequency control, and system restoration.

The paper also presents international best practices from Scotland, including the world’s first transmission-connected BESS providing inertia and short-circuit support.

We discuss the status of the inertia market, including some insight into the ongoing certification process, and overall situation of the deployment of the new market and technology in Germany.