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National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO) has awarded contracts worth £1.3 billion to six companies to provide low-carbon stability services to the power grid.
They were awarded in the third phase of its Stability Pathfinder programme, which is seeking new ways of delivering the stability services previously provided by synchronous fossil fuel power stations alongside the generation of electricity.
The ESO launched a tender in January to provide inertia, short-circuit level and dynamic reactive power in England and Wales between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2035.
Contracts were awarded to RWE, Statkraft, Conrad Energy, Green Frog Power, Transmission Investment Holding and WP Grid Services. All six of the companies will provide system stability using synchronous compensators, which are essentially electric motors with shafts that are not connected to any mechanical load.
The ESO said they will provide a similar level of stability to six 300MW gas plants and will save £14.9 billion by replacing or replicating the actions it would otherwise need to take over the period.
Julian Leslie, ESO head of networks, said: “These new contracts represent a major milestone in delivering a low-carbon network for the future and will help support the delivery of our 2025 ambition to be able to operate the network at zero-carbon.
“These contracts demonstrate the type of savings that can be made and the importance of investing in net-zero now in order to unlock benefits for consumers for the future.”
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