National Grid ESO has announced a tender for reactive power absorption to solve a high voltage requirement in the Mersey region.
The tender is for a year-long contract, starting 1 April 2020, and forms part of National Grid’s new approach to procuring reactive power, including from potential new providers.
“Keeping the voltage steady requires careful management, a deviation as small as 5% above or below can have knock on impacts across the network, for example increased wear and tear of equipment and additional maintenance costs,” the system operator said in a statement.
A National Grid ESO spokesperson said the tender will help it “balance supply and demand for electricity minute by minute.”
“Our tender in the Mersey region is part of a new approach to securing potential new providers of reactive power, for the first time embedded assets are participating in a tender to solve a transmission voltage system need. We look forward to hearing from interested parties as the tender progresses.”
This comes after National Grid ESO published its first Request for Information for provision of long term reactive power in the Mersey region in May 2019. There will also be a longer term tender that is due to be issued later this year.
Reactive power has become increasingly important as the amount of renewables in the energy mix has increased, and particularly in light of the blackout the UK experienced in August.
