Battery storage is of growing interest to commercial and industrial (C&I) entities in the UK, but the wider energy efficiency sector has seen Brexit and other policy woes send confidence to new lows.
Northern Powergrid (NPg) has called on the energy sector to collaborate to decide the future of network-scale energy storage after differences in the role of network owned and operated batteries emerged between differing distribution network operators (DNOs).
A European consortium is to test the use of long duration storage flow machine technology with a large scale tidal energy project planned for the UK later this year.
Vertically integrated energy company Scottish Power has submitted a proposal to extend recently introduced battery de-rating factors in Britain’s Capacity Market to storage included in demand side response bids in what has been described as a latest attack on the battery market.
The UK’s first listed fund for energy storage is setting out to raise £100 million (~$139 million) for investment in battery projects, with a seed portfolio of an estimated 18MW/20MWh already arranged.
UK demand response aggregator Flexitricity has successfully secured gas and electricity supply licences from regulator Ofgem, giving the demand response aggregator the green light to enter the country’s balancing mechanism.
The UK’s Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is calling on the sector to engage with the development of business rates that will be applied to energy storage projects in 2022, including those attached to subsidy-free solar farms.
The capacity market is rapidly becoming “outdated” after the latest auction failed to secure capacity and value for new technologies like energy storage, which is now in “a state of flux” following changes to de-rating factors.
Two of the country’s Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) have said they are tackling the issue of so-called ‘grid grabbers’ through greater interventions in the country’s grid connection queues.
