Anesco is investigating how it could adopt flow batteries into future projects instead of lithium as a response to growing uncertainty around the future of storage de-rating in the capacity market.
The government has placed power and smart systems innovation at the heart of its long-delayed Clean Growth Strategy (CGS), despite offering little more than current funding initiatives for storage, electric vehicle charging and network development.
Kiwi Power is to finance and develop a battery storage project at a multi-technology renewable energy site in south Wales, where it will provide constant grid services availability to National Grid for two years in a first for the aggregator.
Nick Winser, the new president of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has lauded the role of consumers as ‘change-makers’ in a future, decentralised power market.
E.On has become the first company to have secured an Enhanced Frequency Response (EFR) contract last year to announce the completion of its project following the installation and connection of its 10MW battery at the Blackburn Meadows biomass plant last month.
Northern Powergrid has begun using a £4 million battery paid for by consumers to sell services to National Grid, just as regulator Ofgem sets out its plans to ensure distribution network operators (DNOs) are restricted from doing so directly in the future.
Ofgem has said it will provide “regulatory certainty” for storage projects after setting out its plans for amendments to the electricity generation licence to make it fit for electricity storage to take effect as early as the first half of 2018.
Business secretary Greg Clark has announced the universities that will lead research into the next generation of battery technology at the Faraday Battery Institute.
Energy storage could be considered the “great hope” for the renewable energy industry in Britain, according to the head of policy at the Renewable Energy Association (REA).
The government’s previous efforts to expand the number of publicly available electric vehicle chargers has resulted in a network that is “unattractive to use and is unsuitable for encouraging the next wave of EV customers”.
