IAI, KIT - News 2026

A brief fluctuation in grid frequency occurs every minute in the European power grid. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and their partners have now identified the cause of this previously unexplained phenomenon, which could potentially pose challenges for energy infrastructure: Large battery energy storage systems regularly check their state of charge, simultaneously creating short power peaks.

“The battery storage systems’ status checks generate a brief power peak at the beginning of every minute,” says Tenure-Track Professor Benjamin Schäfer, head of the Helmholtz Young Investigator Group Data-driven analysis of complex systems (DRACOS), one of the study’s authors. “When many devices perform their checks at the same time, what is normally a small effect adds up to a measurable fluctuation in the power grid.”

The regular power fluctuations could lead to problems in energy infrastructure over time, emphasizes Dr.-Ing. Richard Jumar, head of Energy Grids Simulation and Analysis Laboratory (EGSAL), who was also involved in the study. “Among other things, these fluctuations increase wear and tear on turbines in hydroelectric power plants.” However, the problem could be solved relatively easily: “If the devices performed their power status checks at staggered times rather than synchronously, the individual peaks could largely cancel each other out,” Jumar explains.

The results of the research team were published in Nature Energy.

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