WPD backs battery storage

Large scale battery storage took a step closer to reality this week as network company Western Power Distribution (WPD) announced a research project designed to realise the benefits of using energy storage on an industrial scale.

WPD has joined with British Solar Renewables (BSR) and the National Solar Centre to build the first embedded battery storage project that will deliver ancillary services to a DNO.

The project is part of a £1 million programme, funded through Ofgem’s Network Innovation Allowance, aiming to investigate the technical and commercial feasibility of linking a major battery storage facility, a solar park and the electricity network. The project will demonstrate nine different applications of energy storage on the grid.

WPD also plans to create a framework commercial agreement model for use by investors and developers to increase battery storage in the UK from the project’s learnings.

The project will see a 300kVA/640kWh battery energy storage system installed at a 1.5MW solar park in Butleigh Somerset which will then be connected to WPD’s South West network.

WPD said the project, expected to complete by 2018, is important in “finding an economical way to store renewable energy.”

BSR’s technical and strategy director Steve Edwards said: “Combining renewable energy and energy storage creates a compelling proposition of affordable, predictable, low-carbon energy, and we will be using the learning from this project to further develop our commercial offering.

“Helping us to demonstrate the new business models, which are rapidly emerging in the integration of storage and PV, will allow BSR’s customers and distribution network operators such as WPD to benefit from the outcomes.”