Made in the UK: Five homegrown energy storage projects

The majority of the energy industry is in agreement: energy storage will be vital in facilitating the deployment of low-carbon and renewable generation onto the system.

Tesla recently announced that its Powerwall energy storage batteries were sold out until at least mid-2016. The company assures Utility Week this will not affect a UK launch due at the beginning of the year, but what are some of the homegrown energy storage projects in the UK?

In April, the government released a report listing energy storage as one of eight great technologies in which the UK can become a global leader, but warned that cost is the main barrier to large-scale uptake of most storage technologies. And director of trade group, Electricity Storage Network (ESN), Anthony Price argues that the sector is “in limbo” as the government comes up with a sustainable energy policy, in which the role of storage is “not crystal clear”.

Nevertheless, the UK has seen a recent increase in the number of energy storage technology projects, with start-ups such as Moixa and Powervault announcing the rollout of their own storage batteries, and independent supplier Good Energy pledging to launch a storage offer by April next year.

“Electricity storage is ready now to deploy on the GB system and offers critical support at a time when the penetration of variable generation and the loss of high-carbon plants cause real system stress,” says senior policy consultant for ESN, Jill Cainey.

She tells Utility Week the flexibility that electricity storage offers not only allows greater deployment of low-carbon generation to address climate change, but “provides vital services, such as frequency response and reactive power, to ensure that the lights are on when we need them”.

Utility Week looks at some of the UK’s most interesting energy storage projects:

Smarter Network Storage, UK Power Networks

UK Power Networks (UKPN) undertook the Smarter Network Storage project in January 2013 with £18.7 million total funding – £13.2 million from Ofgem, £1.2 million from its partners and £4.3 million of its own. The aim of the project is to tackle challenges facing the DNOs in realising the full potential of storage.

UKPN is in the process of demonstrating the multi-purpose application of 6MW of energy storage at Leighton Buzzard primary substation, deferring £8.6 million of traditional reinforcement.

The end-date of the project is December 2016 and, if proven successful, the method will be rolled out across the UK, providing more than £0.7 billion savings by 2040.

Liquid air energy storage demonstrator, Highview Power Storage

Storage developer Highview Power Storage, along with project partner Viridor, was awarded funding from the Department of Energy and Climate Change to build a 5MW liquid air energy storage (LAES) technology system in Greater Manchester.

LAES technology uses electricity to cool air until it liquefies. The liquid air is then stored in a tank and brought back to a gaseous state using waste heat from an industrial process and used to turn a turbine to generate electricity

The project is expected to be operational by the end of 2015 and will operate for at least a year to demonstrate how LAES can provide balancing services. In addition to providing energy storage, the LAES plant will convert low-grade waste heat, from landfill gas engines, to power.

Kilroot power storage facility, AES

The Kilroot power storage facility in Northern Ireland will provide 10MW of interconnected energy storage at the existing 520MW Kilroot coal-fired power station, to help balance supply and demand and support the single electricity market in Ireland.

The pilot project will pave the way for 100MW of grid-connected storage at Kilroot, the largest in Europe, which would help Northern Ireland overcome system constraint challenges and reach its target of 40 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

The array is due to begin operations by the end of 2015. The project leaders hope it will “directly catalyse the deployment of storage” across the all-island grid.

Energy storage for remote island project, REDT Energy Storage

In 2013, storage firm REDT was awarded £3.6 million funding from Decc to work on the demonstration and pre-commercialisation of a 1.68MWh utility-scale version of its grid scale flow battery on the island of Gigha in Scotland, which has limited grid connection via an ageing subsea cable.

The energy storage battery will be integrated with the island’s wind farm, which currently consists of three wind turbines with a combined capacity of 775kW. A fourth turbine of 330kW is being installed, but is constrained to 225kW. The MW-scale energy storage system will address the constraint and allow for a minimum increase in wind energy generation of 20 per cent.

Dinorwig Power Station, First Hydro Company

Dinorwig is a 1.7GW pumped-storage hydroelectric scheme located in Snowdonia national park in north Wales. The plant was fully commissioned in 1984 and is the largest scheme of its kind in Europe.

Dinorwig is comprised of 16km of underground tunnels below Elidir Mountain and six generating units which stand in a large man-made cavern. Adjacent to these sits the main inlet valve chamber, housing the plant which regulates the flow of water through the turbines.

The original purpose of the scheme was to minimise the problems National Grid would’ve had if the large numbers of nuclear power stations which were planned at the time had been built. Today it provides fast response to rapid changes in power demand or sudden loss of power stations.

Innovation will be a key topic of the Utility Week Live, 17-18 May 2016