S&C Electric Europe, Samsung SDI and Younicos have signed a joint agreement to deploy Europe’s largest intelligent network storage project onto a UK power networks substation.
The £18.7m project will save more than £6m on traditional network reinforcement methods and will provide frequency regulation as well as load shifting.
The project will stabilise the grid better than traditional thermal generators with additional space on the grid for clean, but intermittent renewable energies.
The fully automated 6MW/10MWh Smarter Network Storage (SNS) battery technology project will be installed at Leighton Buzzard primary substation in Bedfordshire.
The technology can provide a range of benefits, which include absorbing energy, then releasing it to meet demand to help support capacity constraints and to balance the influx of intermittent and low carbon technologies onto the grid.
The project intends to carry out a range of technical and commercial innovations to facilitate the efficient and economic adoption of storage.
S&C said by contrast to other electrical storage projects, it will demonstrate storage across various parts of the electricity system, outside the boundaries of the distribution network.
S&C Electric Europe managing director Andrew Jones said the major grid challenges from the UK’s decarbonisation target can be met through energy storage’s inherent ability to reinforce the network.
"But currently there are limited large-scale energy storage projects here, leaving a confidence gap. This practical demonstration promises to show the strengths and limitations of storage and unlock its potential as a key technology for the transition to low carbon energy," Jones said.
The project, which is expected to be completed in December 2016, was awarded a funding of £13.2m by Ofgem, under the Low Carbon Networks (LCN) Fund scheme.
Image: The project will stabilise the grid better than traditional thermal generators. Photo: courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
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