A significant number of battery storage assets representing multiple gigawatts of capacity have cleared the first hurdle towards competing in forthcoming Capacity Market auctions.
National Grid confirmed its T-1 (2018-19) and T-4 (2021-22) prequalification results, confirming the number of projects that have either been conditionally prequalified or prequalified to compete in auctions scheduled for January and February next year.
Technologies vying for Capacity Market support include battery storage, other storage technologies such as pumped hydro, interconnectors, OCGTs and nuclear power stations.
In the T-1 auction, which has limited one-year contracts available, a total of 594 assets were prequalified to take place in January’s auction with a combined capacity of 15.58GW.
Of those successful assets, a total of 138 are battery storage with a combined capacity of more than 2.1GW.
However some 33 battery storage assets, with a combined capacity of 322.23MW, were rejected at this time.
The T-4 contracts for the 21/22 delivery year are for 15-years and therefore highly sought after. As a result, more than 1,100 assets were successfully pre-qualified or conditionally pre-qualified, representing more than 91GW of generation capacity.
More than 300 battery storage assets with a significant capacity of 6,187.139MW applied for prequalification, of which 227 were successful. This means that there will be around 4.8GW of battery storage capacity competing in the T-4 auction on 6 February 2018.