UK power group Drax is considering proposals to build a 200MW battery storage facility at its Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire.
Drax has told planning chiefs it intends to consult local communities and others on the battery project, as part of “long-term options” to repower up to two coal units at the plant to gas with up to 3.6GW of new gas generation capacity.
The upgrade would “enhance Drax Power Station’s flexible and responsive capability, and make Yorkshire the home of large-scale battery technology”, the group said.
Drax said its notification to the Planning Inspectorate was a step towards “changing the way energy is generated as the UK moves to a low-carbon future” and coal is removed from the grid. Drax would require the approval of the inspectorate, a government agency, if it decided to go ahead.
CEO Andy Koss (pictured) said: “We are at the start of the planning process but, if developed, these options for gas and battery storage show how Drax could upgrade our existing infrastructure to provide capacity, stability and essential grid services, as we do with biomass.”
Koss said the plant “is a national asset and a significant driver of economic growth in the north of England”. “These options could repurpose up to two of our coal assets and extend their operation into the 2030s.”
Last July, the UK government launched the “first phase” of GBP246 million ($324m) worth of investment in battery technology.
Business secretary Greg Clark said the four-year investment round— dubbed the Faraday Challenge— aimed to support innovation and the “scale-up of battery technology” as part of the government’s wider industrial strategy in the run-up to Brexit.
