Limejump has announced a new partnership with South Somerset District Council’s (SSDC) Opium Power to optimise 90MW of battery energy storage assets.
This will include the asset owner’s 40MW Fareham Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) in Hampshire – the UK’s largest local authority owned battery – and 30MW Fideoak Mill BESS, near Taunton in Somerset. A further 20MW of BESS is set to go live at Fareham over the summer.
Limejump will begin to optimise the Fareham asset in National Grid ESO’s Dynamic Containment market from April 2022, as well as wholesale power and ancillary service markets.
Fideoak Mill has been operational since 2020, and Limejump took over optimisation of the site in late 2021. It plays into a number of markets including stacking Dynamic Containment with wholesale trades.
Genna Boyle, Limejump’s head of renewables and flexibility said the company was “delighted” with the agreement with SSDC Opium Power, adding that the assets will provide “resilience and much needed flexibility services to the grid at a particularly crucial and pivotal time for the UK energy system.”
“Our agreement with SSDC Opium comes as the UK Government will soon unveil a new energy strategy, one that is focused on greater energy independence,” said Boyle.
“We expect the Government to lift restrictions on onshore wind and take steps to facilitate more BESS and solar. National Grid ESO’s Leading the Way FES scenario in 2021 predicted up to 13.1GW of BESS by 2030, so we have a real challenge ahead of us to achieve this.”
Limejump – which is owned by Shell – hit a milestone in July 2021, with more than 1.5GW of capacity on its platform for the first time since the company was established in 2013. The company optimises the 100MW Minety BESS site, the largest in Britain.