The potential for storage to help stabilise the grid has finally been recognised in the UK, where battery projects took all of the 200MW on offer in a recent frequency response tender. David Pickup looks at the evolving role of storage in the future grid and how further policy support can help it flourish.
There have been modest year-on-year increases in the number of PV installers in Germany and the UK offering energy storage to their customers, according to a survey by EUPD Research.
Listed funds in the UK which own a significant portion of the country’s utility-scale solar PV assets are not currently convinced by battery storage’s feasibility, but remain primed to deploy the technology at scale when the time is right.
While Brexit – the impending departure of the UK from the European Union – looms, bringing uncertainty into the country’s economy and international relationships, the role energy storage will play in a decentralised, low(er) carbon and more flexible energy system at least seems a little more assured than it did before.
Nidec ASI has been selected as supplier of batteries to a 49MW energy storage project in the UK by EDF, which will help balance the grid and generate revenues until at least 2035.
A 20MW energy storage project set to be completed by March will use gas/diesel fired generation to deliver millions of pounds in revenue from balancing services to the national transmission network.
