Argonaut Power (AP) and Northumbrian Water (NW) have entered a partnership to pilot the use of large-scale battery storage at a number of the water utility’s sites across Suffolk, Essex, and the UK’s North East.
Utilising technology from also-UK-based Connected Energy, ‘second life’ lithium-ion batteries from Renault electric vehicles will be installed at the sites to provide behind the meter storage and thereby ‘manage energy loads and reduce electricity spend.’
AP will manage the operation of the battery systems, fully fund the investment costs, and thereby benefit by taking a share of the total income achieved.
AP is a London-based battery service provider that is backed by Ingenious Infrastructure and specialises in “zero-cost implementation of battery energy storage systems and on-site generation.”
“This project has been built with innovation and sustainability in its DNA,” commented Connected Energy CEO, Matthew Lumsden. “From our second life battery energy storage systems through to the new operating and financing models.”
It is expected that an installation and revenue sharing contract will be signed by year-end 2018, and the batteries are expected to be “in full operation by the autumn of 2019.
