The UK’s energy system entered a new era on Friday with the announcement that eight huge battery systems will be used to help the country’s power grid cope with the influx of wind and solar power. Germany’s Eon and France’s EDF are among the energy companies to win the first four-year National Grid contracts to supply split-second power to the electricity system in a £66m deal that analysts said was the largest of its kind in Europe.The move is aimed at addressing the challenge created by the growth of renewables, which now account for 25 per cent of UK electricity generation, up from 9 per cent in 2011. Seven companies, including Sweden’s Vattenfall and UK-based Renewable Energy Systems, will install eight lithium-ion battery systems around the UK.
FT 26th Aug 2016 read more »
Eight new battery storage projects are to be built around the UK after winning contracts worth £66m to help National Grid keep power supplies stable as more wind and solar farm are built. EDF Energy, E.On and Vattenfall were among the successful companies chosen to build new lithium ion batteries with a combined capacity of 200 megawatts (MW), under a new scheme to help Grid balance supply and demand within seconds. National Grid says that maintaining the correct frequency is becoming more challenging as more renewable generation is built, because this makes the electricity system less stable and leads to more volatile fluctuation s in frequency. As a result, it has launched a new scheme to support technologies such as batteries that can respond within less than a second to either deliver or absorb power to or from the grid, bringing the system back into balance. EDF Energy’s was the biggest individual project to secure a contract, winning a £12m deal to build 49 megawatts (MW) of battery storage by its coal and gas plants at West Burton in Nottinghamshire. Vattenfall won a contract to build 22MW of batteries next to its Pen y Cymoedd wind farm in Wales, while E.On is to build a 10MW battery by its biomass plant at Blackburn Meadows near Sheffield. Low Carbon secured £15m of deals to build two projects, one in Kent and one in Cumbria, with a combined capacity of 50MW. The other winners were Element Power, RES and Belectric.
Telegraph 26th Aug 2016 read more »