Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners has announced that its new synchronous condenser plant has successfully begun operations.
The Rothienorman project, located in North East Scotland, is one of ten projects awarded contracts by the National Energy System Operator (NESO) Pathfinder II (PFII) programme, which seeks to invest in critical grid and transmission infrastructure to support the UK’s net zero transition. The ten projects awarded under PFII are worth a total of £323 million in forward revenues, and Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners secured seven of the ten awarded contracts.
Construction began on Rotherienorman in February 2023, and the completion makes it the first synchronous condenser plant to be completed under PFII. The firm partnered with developer Welsh Power to deliver the project from design through construction, and equipment was supplied by Seimens-Energy EG.
Synchronous condenser plants provide inertia to the grid, a vital service that is normally provided by the rotating mass of thermal power plants. As the UK moves away from gas and coal-fired plants and towards renewable energy generation, this byproduct of fossil fuel generation must now be manually supplemented with zero-carbon methods.
In April 2024, Quinbrook announced that it had successfully secured a £120 million debt finance deal to fund the development of its synchronous condenser project portfolio, marking the first portfolio financing of synchronous condensers awarded contracts under the PFI and PFII programmes. Later that year, the firm secured another £2.3 billion – its largest financial closing to date – for several transition infrastructure projects, including its synchronous condenser portfolio.
“As the UK increases its uptake of renewable power supply in the drive to net zero, synchronous condensers provide critical grid support enabling the safe and stable addition of more weather sensitive renewable capacity to the UK power system.
“Pathfinder II was specifically implemented to enhance inertia and short-circuit level in Scotland due to its growing asynchronous wind farm capacity combined with the retirement of synchronous nuclear and thermal generation assets,” said Keith Gains, managing director and regional leader UK for Quinbrook.
Synchronous condensers, grid balancing and Pathfinder
While synchronous condenser plants, such as the ones in Quinbrook’s portfolio, are a key part of balancing inertia in a greener grid, battery energy storage systems (BESS) fitted with advanced inverters are another key technology in this field, and one also supported by the Pathfinder programme.
One of the most notable of these is Zenobe Energy’s Blackhillock BESS, also located in Scotland. An article published on our sister site Energy Storage-News described the Blackhillock BESS as “a significant milestone in maintaining grid stability based on inverter-based resources (IBRs) but also in the UK’s journey towards achieving net-zero emissions”, and Zenobe is partnering with other key firms SMA and Wärtsilä for another similar project, once again in Scotland.
Here in the UK, Statkraft’s Swansea Greener Grid Park recently broke ground; once completed, this project will use a total of six rotating stabilisers to mimic the turbines of a traditional power station, allowing the generator to keep electricity flowing to Welsh homes and businesses during grid faults.
