UK energy supplier Centrica has unveiled a three-megawatt battery facility in northeast England as part of a local-authority scheme to power homes.
Centrica said the facility, which includes six lithium-ion Y.Cube units produced by Germany’s Younicos, is capable of supplying energy to a total of 3,000 homes in and around the town of Gateshead for one hour. The facility has minimum response time of 140 milliseconds.
Centrica will manage the battery project under a 10-year contract to store and release power for the Gateshead District Energy Centre, which was opened earlier this year.
Councillor John McElroy (right), Gateshead Council’s cabinet member for environment and transport, said the initiative would provide “low cost heat and power to homes, organisations and businesses in central Gateshead”.
“It’s a bold, imaginative scheme that means we can also store and release power when we choose, as well as supporting the National Grid, which helps raise more income to support council services,” McElroy said.
In March, German company Younicos supplied lithium-ion energy storage system to Centrica to build a ‘flexible power plant’ at the site of a mothballed facility in the UK.
