Gresham House Energy Storage Fund (GHESF) and Flexitricity has announced the UK’s largest lithium-ion battery is now live less than six months after planning legislation was relaxed to allow individual energy storage projects to be greater than 50MW.
Scottish firm Flexitricity is optimising the 50MW/75MWh battery in Thurcroft, South Yorkshire, which will help the National Grid ESO balance supply and demand.
GHESF bought the Thurcroft battery storage site from Gresham House DevCo— a subsidiary of investment firm Gresham House— and Noriker Power on 2 November.
Following the completion of the Thurcroft deal, GHESF expects to complete the acquisition of the 50MW Wickham project, bringing its portfolio capacity to 315MW.
Specialist alternative asset manager Gresham House develops projects before transferring them to GHESF— a separate entity— when the project becomes operational.
The asset went live in the balancing mechanism (BM) reserve— a tool used to balance supply and demand— from storage trial, and was then live in the BM immediately afterwards.
Through the BM, providers can offer to increase or decrease their generation or demand to help balance the system.
Flexitricity monitors the BM round the clock and remotely alters the charge and discharge profile of the Thurcroft battery.
The project will also trade the battery in the wholesale markets and tender for frequency response services and secure dynamic containment frequency response contracts from National Grid.
