The Sea Li-ion project evaluates and maps out innovative ideas and sustainable solutions to boost electrification of the maritime sector. The focus of the project is to address the bottlenecks and lack of available shore power using energy storage to complement existing shore power installations.
Andreas is currently studying the last semester of his master program Electric Power Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg.
“With the Sea Li-ion project the student gets to work with a concrete project that is in the forefront of innovation with a close anchoring to reality.” Says Lucas Thomée, Team Leader and Sea Li-ion project manager at DNV.
“I have gotten experience from communicating with different companies, attending meetings and listening. The project has been more than just theory and analysis, which has been very valuable to me as I am soon graduating and starting my career.” Says Andreas Benjaminsson.
“I have also had the privilege to learn a software program that we do not use at the university, which has been very interesting but also a little challenging. You start at one end with the knowledge you have obtained from university courses and where you are familiar, then during the thesis you constantly learn new things that pushes the work forward.” Andreas continues about the process of the thesis.
The thesis has a focus on how the energy storage system can be used for other applications, apart from the main purpose of charging electric ferries and providing ancillary services. In the thesis Andreas is also studying the control of the energy storage system in electric island-operation. In a potential extreme situation, the city of Gothenburg could be operated in an electric island, which is disconnected from the main grid. The thesis investigates how a battery energy storage system can be used to support and improve the stability of the islanded grid.
” We had masters students at DNV last year that studied the charging of electric ferries and ancillary services, and now we are taking the next step by looking at what more the energy storage can do.” Says Lucas.
“It is important to us to have close relations with the academia. The main reason to have Chalmers as a part of the Sea Li-ion project through the master thesis students is to connect to the latest innovation and research. The universities are at the forefront and considering the nature of the Sea Li-ion project, it is of interest to look at more than just the daily operations. By connecting with academia, we raise the level of innovation and research in the project.“ Lucas continues.
DNV is also part of the Swedish Electricity Storage and Balancing Center (SESBC), an initiative from Chalmers University of Technology. The aim is to be a key player to reach the vision of a 100 percent renewable electric system through the formation of a multidisciplinary and international competitive Swedish hub for excellent research with strong industrial collaboration.
BatteryLoop is also part of the SBSC and have a master student writing their thesis with the company from Chalmers, however not part of the Sea Li-ion project. On the other hand, BatteryLoop have students from CTK, Chalmers technical consultancy, working on the Sea Li-ion project with them.
Andreas will soon be finishing up his thesis and graduating this summer – wishing him the best of luck!
