Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) has for the first time awarded flexibility contracts to a windfarm as part of a tender for the Isle of Skye that also saw contacts won by three hydro generators.
The installations will supply power to local communities during prolonged power cuts or network maintenance, replacing conventional backup generators such as diesel engines.
The constraint managed zone (CMZ) contracts cover 5.9MW of renewable capacity, including some from the Ben Aketil windfarm, owned and operated by Falck Renewables.
“We’re delighted to have signed a CMZ contract with SSEN for our Ben Aketil Wind Farm which will ensure local people have a constant supply of clean, renewable energy when other supplies fail,” said Richard Dibley, managing director of Falck Renewables Wind UK.
Alex Howison, flexible solutions manager for SSEN said: “These new CMZ contracts allow for renewable and low-carbon energy sources to play a larger role in the management and flexibility of the network. We are pleased to be working with local energy suppliers to develop solutions to balance the grid and tackle local network issues, in a way that is both cost-effective and low-carbon.”
Meanwhile, Western Power Distribution has awarded contracts to 222MW of flexibility capacity in its latest tender. It brings the total volume contracted across all six of the rounds to date to 439MW.
Despite exceeding its stated target for the tenders of 374MW, WPD network strategy manager Bed Godfrey said they were still looking for more: “Our strategy has always been to seek an excess of flexibility in each of our constraint locations to ensure we can meet the network’s needs. Having a pool of available providers offers us increased security, for example in the event of a provider’s unavailability due to asset maintenance or fault.
“While this round has been hugely successful, in reality only 11 of the 54 zones have a sufficient amount of excess and many are still under-fulfilled. We will be continuing to seek providers to fulfil around 170MW of further flexibility for under-fulfilled locations in future rounds of procurement.
“In addition, we will continue to identify new constraint locations as part of our flexibility first commitment.”
Earlier this month, WPD launched a revamped version of its Flexible Power platform, which is now also being used by SP Energy Networks, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks and Northern Grid to host their tenders.