Italian electricity utility Enel has purchased a 25MW stand-alone battery storage project in Newcastle, UK, by acquiring shares in Tynemouth Energy Storage Limited (TESL) from Element Power, a London-headquartered energy company.
RES, a UK-based renewable energy developer, will construct and deliver the lithium-ion battery energy storage system (BESS), named RESolve, and operate it from its 24-hour control centre in Glasgow.
RES expects to start construction this summer. Enel, which is spending a total of about €20 million ($22 million) on the project, expects the whole project to be operating by early 2018.
The project is supported by a four-year Enhanced Frequency Response (EFR) contract with National Grid.
Mike O’Neill, CEO of Element Power, commented, “Element Power is delighted to work with Enel in delivering one of the country’s first battery storage facilities to provide ancillary value-added services to the UK’s National Grid.”
Enrico Viale, head of Enel’s Global Thermal Generation division, said, “Due to the increasing role of renewable energy sources, the growing need of grid balancing services and the fast reduction of technology costs, the BESS market is expected to grow exponentially in all geographies in the next years.
“For this reason, Tynemouth represents for Enel an opportunity to gain experience and strategic knowledge in building such projects, which can then be applied to other markets.”
