Battery storage projects in Darlington, Sheffield and Gateshead

Battery energy storage projects – designed to offer grid balancing services to local network operators – are beginning to appear in number at sites across parts of the country. Amid several announcements of schemes to be built, three schemes have reached advanced stages.

First, electricity distributor Northern Powergrid has been using a £4mn battery project installed in Darlington to maintain the electricity network at a stable frequency since September.  It is delivering the contract in partnership with energy storage aggregator Kiwi Power. The 2.5 MW (5 MWh) battery is the size of three storage containers and can store enough energy to power 2,500 houses for two hours.

The project is part of Northern Powergrid’s £30mn eight-year innovation programme aimed at improving the region’s power network. Revenues earned will be reinvested to support other innovation projects.

Melissa MacLennan, Commercial Development Manager at Northern Powergrid, said: ‘The electricity landscape is changing rapidly with the growth of renewables, batteries and electric vehicles. This project is a step in our evolution into a distribution system operator (DSO) with an active role in seizing the opportunities these technologies offer to cut the cost of running the electricity system, improve its reliability and reduce its carbon footprint.’

Second, E.ON has completed the installation and grid connection of its 10 MW battery at the Blackburn Meadows biomass plant near Sheffield. Housed in four shipping containers, the lithium-ion battery has the same power as roughly 100 family cars.

Battery systems work by immediately discharging power to the network when the frequency falls – either when supply drops or when demand increases – bringing the frequency back up, says E.ON. The battery is also available to take power off the network if supply is greater than demand.

The Blackburn Meadows battery was successful in National Grid’s Enhanced Frequency Response (EFR) tender to deliver technologies capable of responding in less than one second at times of either an over or under-supply of energy to the grid.

Third, Centrica's Distributed Energy and Power business has installed a 3 MW commercial battery storage scheme for Gateshead Council. Designed to store or release energy for the Gateshead District Energy Centre, once commissioned it will be capable of responding to fluctuations in demand in under a second.

Centrica will manage the project under a 10-year contract, providing various flexibility services for the grid. In time, it will also be used to help meet peaks in local demand, providing electricity through a private wire to council-owned buildings and Tyneside buildings including Gateshead College and the Sage Gateshead concert venue.

• At a rather different scale, the operators of the giant Drax coal/biomass-fired power station are to consider plans to create up 3.6 GW of new gas-fired generation capacity at the Yorkshire site, plus up to 200 MW of battery storage.

Battery storage in Darlington

Photo: Northern Powergrid