Energy storage firm RedT has connected a 1MWh flow machine to the grid as part of its project with Centrica in North Cornwall. 

The company uses vanadium redox flow technology, which it claims can deliver longer duration energy storage as opposed to the shorter burst power storage provided by battery technologies and chemistries such as lithium and lead acid.

CEO Scott McGregor believes longer duration storage assets will be required by energy systems in the UK and around the world as the penetration of renewable generation increases.

The project with Centrica is at The Olde House, a 600 acre farm and holiday retreat. It is enabling the farm to store solar energy from its 250kW PV array to use later in the day, which is when guests are returning to the holiday cottages.

The set up means the farm can harness significantly more of its renewable solar onsite generation, with RedT suggesting that that the project’s rate of return is in the “mid teens”, or roughly seven to eight years.

Centrica’s Local Energy Market trial is a £19m innovation project that also involves Western Power Distribution, The University of Exeter and National Grid. It is designed to show the role flexibility and storage can play in driving down the cost of energy across local and national systems.

RedT believes timeshifting the solar for use at peak times could save The Olde House up to 50% on grid imports during peak times.

It will also create revenue by tracking and dynamically responding to changes in grid frequency (frequency response) and providing grid services such as; Short Term Operating Reserve (STOR), participation in the Capacity Market and Demand Turn Up.  

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There are quick bucks to be made from battery storage. But in three or four years, many assets will be in the bin, reckons redT chief Scott McGregor. He claims sustainable energy storage that can handle multiple functions for decades without degrading is now viable. Brendan Coyne reports

Predictions for battery storage penetration vary wildly. UK Power Networks recently reported it had received 12GW of connections requests in little over a year, much of it for batteries, much of it “highly speculative”. Western Power Distribution has 1GW of storage connections agreements on its network, with a further 1GW offered.

National Grid meanwhile, sees up to 18GW of all forms of electrical storage on the system by the 2040. Government predicts around 4GW of batteries by 2033.

But Scott McGregor, CEO of energy storage firm redT, believes market sizing predictions and the recent rush to secure frequency response contracts obscure fundamental truths. He says battery storage as opposed to energy storage is unsustainable – and many of today’s frequency response “arbitrage exploitation” opportunities may not exist in three years’ time.

Neither, he says, will some of the assets.

“The returns [for frequency response] are currently good. That’s nice, but they are batteries which will degrade and have to be thrown away – and that revenue opportunity will also run away pretty quickly.”

McGregor points to California, which he suggests is suffering a lithium hangover. Battery owners that piled into frequency response now spy other revenue streams. But, says McGregor, “they can’t access them because the battery is only warrantied to provide one service – and if they do more it will burn out”.

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Many organisations have to manage critical power supplies with technology that can provide full UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) functionality, due to the increasing number of brownouts and blackouts the electricity network is experiencing.

Alongside resilience, rising energy prices are also a cause for concern for many businesses.

Meanwhile, peak network charges for both the transmission system (Triad) and the distribution network (DUoS) are increasingly significant costs.

Battery-based energy storage systems can help mitigate network costs while providing UPS – and are already doing so for many businesses. They enable electricity storage from either the National Grid at times of low demand, or directly from renewable sources, for use at peak times or when required.

VIRTUE, Powerstar’s energy storage system, is one such solution. It can provide full UPS capabilities, alongside greater control and flexibility of electricity usage, and the potential to access grid incentives such as Demand Side Response (DSR) schemes. The award-winning solution can be integrated with renewable generation, allowing companies to save and store electricity generated locally; reducing demand on the National Grid, the strain on the network and lowering carbon emissions.

The adoption of energy management solutions such as VIRTUE can act as a safeguard and offer a ‘future proof’ UPS solution for sites with critical power supplies such as data centres or medical facilities, which have an ever-growing amount of vital electrical equipment.

Correctly designed to the specifications of a facility’s needs, VIRTUE can easily be scaled to match growing demand, with capacity increased by simply installing additional batteries.

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