VLC Energy has completed the installation the UK’s largest utility-scale battery portfolio to date.
The 50MW portfolio consists of a 40MW battery park at Glassenbury in Kent and a 10MW battery park at Cleator in Cumbria, both with discharge duration of 30 minutes.
The lithium-ion batteries will be used to maintain a stable grid frequency by varying their output in response to fluctuations in demand and supply, having secured contracts to provide sub-second Enhanced Frequency Response (EFR) in National Grid’s auction in 2016.
They also won contracts in the most recent four-year-ahead (T-4) capacity market auction.
VLC Energy is a joint venture between VPI Immingham – the owner of the Immingham combined heat and power plant in Lincolnshire and part of the Vitol Group – and renewable investment company Low Carbon.
Roy Bedlow, chief executive of Low Carbon, said:“These battery parks represent perhaps the greatest increase in UK energy storage capacity to date as part of National Grid’s EFR auction.”
He added: “Energy storage is critical to managing the demands on the grid, ensuring consumer needs are met, and increasing our reliance on low-carbon forms of electricity generation.”
Russel Hardy, chairman of VPI Immingham and chief executive for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Vitol, said: “Batteries hold the key to the future of the power landscape, both in the UK and internationally. Ensuring grid resilience is a necessary step in the growth of renewable generation.”