Irish energy trading and services firm ElectroRoute is to optimise two battery storage projects on behalf of European renewable investment firm NTR.
ElectroRoute has entered into a long-term agreement for the two battery storage facilities, which when combined total 25MW and are both located in Co.Wexford.
The battery storage assets are to provide grid firming services to the power system, allowing the system operators to integrate more renewables on the system while mitigating curtailment levels. Indeed, the sites were recently awarded 10-year contracts for the supply of grid capacity in an auction held by EirGrid and SONI.
The assets add to ElectroRoute’s current battery portfolio, which now stands at 275MW. The company will optimise the battery storage projects’ revenues through its AI-powered virtual power plant, ElectricRoute Core, and its trading desk in Dublin.
“These battery storage projects bring much-needed diversity of technology to the Irish grid and will provide support services to the grid when required,” Anthony Doherty, chief investment officer at NTR, said.
In 2020, Norwegian energy firm Statkraft completed an 11MW battery project in Ireland which it said was the first utility-scale battery in the country. The company also signed a deal in 2021 to provide market access and trading optimisation for battery storage assets being developed by RWE in Ireland.
A number of optimisation agreements have also recently been signed for battery storage assets in the UK, including Arenko being awarded contracts for 455MW of Gresham House Energy Storage Fund’s battery storage assets and Centrica Business Solutions agreeing a 10-year contract for the optimisation of three Arlington Energy battery storage plants totalling 89MW.
The NTR battery storage projects form part of NTR Renewable Energy Income Fund II, a wind, solar and energy storage fund operating across Europe.
As it stands, NTR has developed, constructed and operated almost 3,000MW of wind, solar and energy storage projects in Europe and the US.