In 2013 the world’s first HECS system was installed on site at HYCON in the hydrogen application center H2-Herten. In combination with a on-hand wind turbine, the HECS system is able to meet the annual electrical requirement of 250,000 kWh as well as supplying the hydrogen requirement of 6,000 kg of the hydrogen application center CO2-free. In addition, the HECS system acts as R&D platform for tackling future energy technology challenges. Together with our partners Westphalian Energy Institute and Anwenderzentrum GmbH we are continually testing, optimizing and improving, our energy storage systems and reviewing the quality of new technologies and manufacturers. Due to the flexible setting of current power infeed and load profiles we can study unlimited operational scenarios experimentally under real conditions in real-time for each application. The availability of an experimentally established data base and in combination with these developed IT tools puts us in a position to design hydrogen-based energy storage systems tailored for a diverse range of applications.