One of the first investor-owned grid-scale lithium-ion battery storage projects in the UK has been pre-qualified to supply backup power to the national grid following a capacity market auction, BBB can reveal.
Grid Battery Storage (GBSL), which formed a partnership last year with Germany’s Siemens to launch four grid-related battery projects, was among the winners of Britain’s capacity market auction.
The first of the projects— GBSL’s 6MW battery at a site in Dorking, Surrey— is set to go live in September 2018.
James McKellar, GBSL director and co-founder, told BBB: “We were successful in the recent UK capacity market bidding but I cannot go into detail. Contracts will be signed soon.”
And McKellar said an announcement would be made soon on the progress and future operations of the three other battery projects planned in the UK with Siemens.
GBSL’s success came despite warnings from industry insiders that new electricity market reforms in the UK could make it harder for battery storage firms to compete and stifle battery innovation.
Now GBSL has signed a three-year deal for Norway-based renewables firm Statkraft to provide electricity trading optimisation services and access to the firm frequency response market for the Dorking battery.
Statkraft said battery storage will “revolutionise the UK energy landscape by providing the flexibility necessary to integrate increasing levels of intermittent renewables while maintaining security of supply”.
