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BESS boom spotted in UK as revenues quadruple since December 2024
26/3/2025
News
New data from Cornwall Insight has revealed a surge in BESS revenues since December 2024, primarily driven by the 20% of revenue now being brought in from grid stabilising reserve services – up from 4% at the start of December.
The report shows average BESS revenues have quadrupled over the past year. Half of this increase has occurred since December 2024, with the rise largely attributed to the introduction of Quick Reserve in November 2024 – a frequency management tool introduced by the National Energy System Operator (NESO) to counter supply-demand imbalances. Tight system margins were also a partial factor in the increased revenues.
Quick Reserve ensures stability by getting batteries to rapidly ramp up (positive) or down (negative) energy use within one minute.
According to the data, there has been a relatively narrow range of technologies bidding into Quick Reserve so far, with batteries very much dominating, and accounting for all accepted volumes during December 2024.
The report notes that, given the saturation of other response services, Quick Reserve has provided a valuable additional revenue source for batteries in recent months. However, this may not continue, with ~6 GW of batteries expected to come online by the end of 2025. More battery capacity means it is possible that the healthy returns seen so far from Quick Reserve could follow a similar pattern to the other frequency response markets, with market saturation dampening revenues, the report concludes.
Meanwhile, Zenobē has secured its largest-ever financing package, raising £220mn for its latest battery energy storage system (BESS) project in Eccles, Scotland. The deal is thought to be one of the largest standalone battery storage financing deals in Europe.
The funding, arranged by National Westminster Bank and KKR Capital Markets Partners, will support the construction of the 400 MW/800 MWh site. The project is expected to go live in early 2027.
Over the next 15 years, the Eccles battery is projected to save consumers £309mn by reducing the need to pay wind generators to switch off – known as curtailment costs – and prevent approximately 4.9mn tonnes of CO2 being emitted over 15 years.
Eccles is the final phase of Zenobē’s £750mn investment in Scotland, with its Blackhillock site near Inverness recently achieving commercial operations.
