Battery Energy Storage Systems
By Paul Homewood
h/t idau
There has been discussion of solar farm projects which include battery storage. (Battery Energy Storage Systems, or BESS).
The claims of the developers and renewable lobby is that storage will help to make intermittent renewables work.
By coincidence Timera have just published this update, which reveals it is nothing more than a money making ploy:
Impact of new balancing platform on GB BESS
Batteries create value from harvesting price volatility. The real time Balancing Mechanism (BM) has the most volatile prices in the GB market, yet battery (BESS) assets have captured limited BM value to date.
BESS BM value capture has historically been impacted by:
- Manual dispatch of flexible assets by the System Operator (ESO), disadvantaging smaller asset dispatch
- The 15 min rule where BESS bid offer acceptances are effectively limited to 15 mins of duration (given issues with the ESO’s visibility as to state of charge)
- Skip rates where the ESO has consistently chosen higher priced assets over BESS in the BM (reflecting issues 1. & 2. above, but also real constraints that the ESO faces in managing the system e.g. locational requirements to use thermal assets).
There has been significant progress in 2024 in addressing these factors with the introduction of the ESO’s new Open Balancing Platform and a relaxation of the 15 min rule.
In today’s article we look at the impact of these changes on BESS asset dispatch in the BM.
https://timera-energy.com/our-latest-views-on-bess-value-capture-in-the-bm/
The rest is technical, but the key is this opening sentence:
Batteries create value from harvesting price volatility
As Timera note, the Balancing Mechanism (BM) has the most volatile prices in the GB market. This is because of the inherent unreliability of wind and solar power. When supplies are short, the Grid is forced to step in and buy up short term power supplies wherever it can get it.
Prices can obviously go sky high, and it is trading at these times where the battery storage operators can make a handsome return. These costs of course end up being added to consumer bills.
In short, solar/battery farms can make large profits from the very intermittency which they create.
None of these battery storage systems will solve the problem of how to store solar power in summer for use in winter, when generation falls to about 3% of capacity. Instead they are designed to store power during the day, to use at night.
The giant Project Fortress solar/BESS farm in Kent, mentioned by Ray Sanders, is rated at 373 MW, with 700 MWh of battery storage. That’s less than two hours’ worth.
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Interestingly, BESS Trusts have done very badly indeed in the last 12 months, HEIT for example has lost about two thirds of its value.
Harmony Energy Income Trust plc Share Price (HEIT) ORD GBP0.01 | HEIT (hl.co.uk)
Great dividend yield at that price though!
They’ve suspended the dividend currently
Many investment trusts are standing at discounts to claimed net asset value and I understand there are three reasons.
Firstly, a lot of money has been taken out of the market so there are always nmore sellers than buyers
Secondly there are doubts about the value of the assets. These are valued by reference to their income yield and interest rates have risen.
Thirdly there are worries that investment trusts who have a portfolio of new ventures may have commitments to provide additional finance as their assets mature. HEIT for example has plans to increase its storage capacity. The worry is they might not have the cash and further borrowing will be costly if it is available at all.
BESS operators are trying to procure additional sites, especially near sub-stations and where further solar or wind power is planned. They seem to offer exceptional rent.
I have had reason to look at these businesses. I suggest the life expectancy of the batteries may not be as long as claimed. Just like solar panels the cost of replacement sooner than expected could be serious for their financials. Also, the batteries might do what they have just done in France and at Luton airport – spontaneously combust. Who wants to live or work near that or own the land underneath.
The BESS sites are usuallly owned ny SPVs with no other assets and the central company manages them. If one SPV gets into trouble one could see it being abandoned. Aswith all other energy assets, one would have expected provision to be made for replacement, decommissioning or removal of the burned-out wreck. In fact the BESS businesses do not put assets aside for replacement iuntiol year 15 out of a claimed 25 year lifespan. They say insurance is not available for potential pollution and public liability.
All very rum indeed.
Perhaps it’s just the UK that struggles with BESS, Hornsdale Australia was installed in 2017 and seems to be working well with one big advantage being the reduction of the dreaded curtailment.
I don’t think the HPR is doing well at all. It seems to be sick, with the past couple of months achieving just 73% round trip efficiency, and throughputs well down. Of course, poor performance means bigger cost to make a profit, so opportunities that were there before are now loss making.
The money side of the equation has also stalled, with much less income coming in from FCAS – ancillary services helping to keep the grid frequency stable.
Artyjoke , you mention Hornsdale, but not Victoria.
I wonder why.
I remembered reading about Hornsdale in the news and I think it is one of the oldest big battery systems in the world.
There was a fire during the commissioning and testing of Victoria BB in 2021 that affected 1% of the units, obviously a serious concern. However, it was charging and discharging at up to 250MW a few months later so it seems they fixed it.
The chief problem for the VBB has been the lack of profitable trading opportunities. The battery seems to be in good health being relatively new, with round trip efficiencies averaging comfortably over 80%. But is has competition for FCAS from the coal fired stations, local hydro and other batteries, including the 200MW at Hazlewood. Because of fossil fuel and the Basslink to Tasmanian hydro priced are less volatile in Victoria. The battery is big, charging at up to 400MW, which can be enough to move prices (set every 5 minutes) against it.
The blackouts on 13th February in Victoria were marked by no special response from batteries. There are questions why that is so to which I have no answers. The major cascading trip that knocked out Loy Yang and several wind and solar farms was at 13:10, marked by 5 min of just over 100MW in toto 5 min later from all the batteries combined. Click on chart for larger version.
The yield is so high because the shares are so cheap and their stated objective of capital growth looks highly optimistic as the price tanks.
@Artyjoke.
How long will the Hornsdale BESS system last? 15 years before it needs replacing?
Paul’s statement that the Project Fortress solar/BESS battery storage lasting a few hours is also probably off by 40% as I suspect he’s judging it on the nameplate value.
As with EV’s, BESS systems cannot fall below 20% charge nor use more than 80% charge or the battery life will be severely curtailed.
Well yes, yield is relative to price. Thanks.
2-3 years ago batteries were getting £17/MW/hr for fast frequency response ancillary services. With the increase in capacity has come competition and the newer Dynamic Containment contracts auctioned daily often get as little as £1-2/MW/hr. So a 50MW battery that could earn £17x8760x50, or almost £7.5m p.a. just more or less for being online and charging and discharging a little bit as grid frequency varies has seen that income virtually disappear – they might not even get awarded an auction contract if they offer too high.
The very volatile market of 2021/22 was highly profitable for storage. A good measure of that is the standard deviation of day ahead prices over each month – when it is high, there are big price swings that make charging up and discharging very profitable, and when it is low the price variation may not even cover the round trip losses.
Returns have normalised, albeit not quite back to the levels of 2017-20. But with ever more capacity coming on stream it will get tougher to make money unless there are sweetheart deals. Longer duration doesn’t really help much: the extra capacity has extra cost, and gets to turn over less frequently. The economics of anything over 4 hours duration look to remain challenging for the foreseeable future, and even that will struggle.
After a recommend to buy (didn’t) I’ve been watching Octopus Energy the proud green electricity provider’s share price. Catastrophic.
Octopus Group is privately owned and seems to have plenty of funding.
Octopus Renewables ORIT is down 30% in a year so very bad but not as severe as the 70% drop of HEIT.
It has been obvious for a long time that ruinable energy generators (wind and solar) create instability due to their intermittency, unpredictability and the fact that they are asynchronous generators. Now the same ruinable energy developers claim we need BESS to sove the problems that they have created. What a scam that we consumers are paying for! Of course the BESS developers deny all this and the decision-makers (planning officers, planning commitees and planning inspectors don’t understand this and are happy to ensure the scam continues in order to get to net zero and because of the “climate emergency” that all councils have stupidly signed on to. Planning policy makes it virtually impossible to get councils to refuse planning permission.
+1
Are they the same investors though? I doubt it, as infrastructure investors like stable, predictable cash flows where’s BESS is like investing in a trading operation – buy low, sell high.
In my experience, most of them are.
Exactly, vertically integrated utilities with retail supply businesses could invest as they hedge their retail risk. If there was a true market with many traders, the uneconomic factors would get traded out after a time. Silly investments would go bust, but then that is what a market should do. Its because there is no market with real price signals that uneconomic investment happens and survives with the end customer paying for the inefficiency.
BESS can contract to provide urgent supply but also trade within the market. If the trdaing is sufficiently liquid the profits would be seen as predictable. Given the dire state of UK energy markets I cannot see any risk of a lack of demand for load balancig at short notice.
The profits aren’t predictable as it’s impossible to predict when the wind won’t blow and when other factors (e.g. connectors) won’t be able to provide or provide at a given cost. And the profit is also dependent on being able to buy low – unpredictable in a long windless period.
The Dinorwig pumped storage “battery” in N Wales, when fully charged, can generate 1.8 GW for 6 hours – 11 Gwh, roughly what the grid consumes in 20 minutes.
For context, Rough natural gas storage even at its current reduced storage capacity can store 54bcf / 1.53bcm of natural gas. That’s ~16,800GWh, and it can discharge that energy at ~54GW
https://www.centrica.com/media-centre/news/2023/centrica-bolsters-uk-s-energy-security-by-doubling-rough-storage-capacity/
Of course all pumped storage uses more electricity than it consumes, due to the uphill pumping. It relies entirely on the availability of cheap night rate electricity from the grid to make financial sense.
*Produces*, not consumes!
Last year the average round trip efficiency of GB pumped storage was 76.26%. They had a tough time in May, when solar depressed prices and limited their opportunity to sell into a rush hour peak, while lack of wind reduced opportunity to charge up cheaply overnight.
When we’re all charging our EVs, doing our washing and running heat pumps over night will there be any cheap electricity left?
So not only do we have to pay for assets we don’t actually need (if we didn’t use renewables) but we have to pay very high prices for their electricity when we use them.
Quite how that can possibly make electricity “cheap” is beyond me.
But Kneeler Flip Flop and Rachel Plagiarist say that when all the nasty fossil fuels have gone in 2030 we will save £1400 a year and yet with an expected reduction in the cap of £300 coming that only leaves a few hundred left to pay. Looks like Rachel copied the wrong set of figures as this is obviously complete rubbish. But maybe I am looking at this from the wrong direction in expecting electricity will be available as now when in fact you will have so little of it that it will only cost a few hundred quid a year?
More money down the drain
£1.5bn Teesside carbon capture scheme consented
Teesworks, the use of the Redcar steelworks site, has the whiff of corruption about it. Another white elephant from DESNZ will just be more shit on their shoes.
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2024/02/the-teesworks-scandal-exposes-britains-crony-economy
At least we’re going to have a gas fired power station built. They can alway leave off the CO2 capture bit in the future?
New gas stations are not being built because they cannot get a return on capital employed, with carbon tax and getting switched off when it is windy, it is not viable, they would be ideal at the sites of the blown up coal units, assuming the clowns left the infrastructure.
In the next couple of weeks we should get the results of the current Capacity Market auctions for 2024/25 and 2027/28. It is expected that the T-4 auction will clear towards the top price of £75m/GW/a, which would be enough to build some gas generation, but not to cover early closure or CCS. I think we can expect another DESNZ panic soon, as the prospect of capacity shortage leading to power cuts looms ever larger.
David Turver has a nice look at the prospect this week:
https://davidturver.substack.com/p/wait-for-the-blackout/
I have zero knowledge of how the physics & chemistry of “Carbon Capture” work but the following caught my eye in the Report on The Tees Works that Glenartney referred to :-
“…. the onward transport of the captured CO2 to a suitable offshore geological storage site in the North Sea”
So in what form is this ‘captured CO2’ to be transported ? And in what form is it to be stored ? Compressed ? Frozen solid (dry-ice) ? Liquified ?
What & where are these ‘offshore geological storage sites in the North Sea ?
Do they mean the old workings of Dawdon, Monkwearmouth, Blackhall, Easington etc collieries ?
If Yes, the old production faces (& ‘spaces’) are miles from terra firma & power supplies.
For every mw of wind power (nameplate power), they would need 120 mwh of battery backup, to cope with a 10-day wind outage.
I bet they are not planning on doing that….!
Ralph
It’s not for backup. It’s for arbitrage.
“Battery storage is not “battery backup.’
(not backup)
They should make that more clear.
Th Climate Change Committee’s report seemed to indicate that all these extra chemical (Tesla) batteries were for storage, comparing it with Dinorwig.
But if they are not budgeting for storage, then they are only budgeting for half the system. Which is why they can claim it is cheap. It is like costing a gas fired power station, without costing in the fuel – and then saying it is really cheap.
R
Dinorwig and the batteries, along with the diesels, are there to buy the time needed to ramp up gas turbines when more generation is required.
(ramp up gas).
Negative. The government has declared it will end all gas generation by 2035. In which case, we need stored backup. Lots of stored backup.
Worse still, we need some 25,000 gwh of backup, to allow for a 10-day renewables outage, and we only have 10 gwh.
R
On day 11, everyone dies?
(day 11)
More or less. The government says were are only two meals away from revolution.
Now imagine 10 days with no food, water, sewerage, transport, or heating.
That is revolution time.
R
You can buy “120 mwh” batteries for just £4.89 on ebay.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204310800806
Can’t see the problem?
Slightly off topic, but to help get to net zero there are plans to neuter (according to GB News, this morning) squirrels and cull deer to save trees. Back on topic, isn’t it all a scam to make money? Off topic, I watched the US Secretary of State for Energy grilled by a Senetor and; in reply to the above’s question: Why do you think 98% of scientists agree on Climate Change? The senator replied: Because they’re all Grifters, like you Mr Secretary ………..
Some might consider it’d be better for all concerned to neuter Greens & cull enviros.
The 98% included all the don’t knows the number of which was substantial.
Net Zero or not, grey squirrels and deer are pests to the forestry industry. Grey squirrels are an introduced vermin and to some extent all deer species have been introduced but Chinese water deer and muntjac deer are genuine pests that you can shoot more readily than roe or fallow deer.
Squirrels can ruin trees 20 years or more old by stripping the bark. Deer stop forests regenerating by browsing new growth.
I thought y’all gave up your guns.
The Red Deer population in Scotland has been increasing since I was a boy that’s 70 years at least. The current woke “shooting wild animals is cruel and unnecessary ” has meant a population explosion in the last couple of decades.
Forestry plantations were always protected by deer fences. Rewilding means that culling by shooting wild animals.
The current woke “shooting wild animals is cruel and unnecessary ” has meant a population explosion in the last couple of decades.
The UK needs “natural controls” for deer. Wolves would be an interesting solution.
“The UK needs “natural controls” for deer. Wolves would be an interesting solution.”
Until they start leaving barely fledged Monbiot chicks at the door of the Guardian.
Squirrels mainly damage trees by stripping the blossom and new shoots so inhibiting growth. The deer decapitate small trees. otters eat all the waterfowl eggs and river fish so these are now in chronic decline.
And yes gamecock, some of us in Britain are sensible enough to have guns! I’ve only got 2 but as i’m seeing more deer I’m thinking of buying another larger calibre rifle. The only problem with shooting deer is you then have to gut the smelly thing. That i dont enjoy. But the livers are nice!
https://observatory.wiki/Why_Ecosystems_Need_Healthy_Populations_of_Apex_Predators_to_Be_Restored
To people who think introducing wolves will keep the deer in check. The deer are not stupid, when wolves are introduced into an area they move away. Wolves figure out there are easier sheep and cows are easier prey. Sheep and cows in the UK are habituated to humans over thousands of years and in general are docile around us, when the wolf is introduced their behaviour changes and animals resort to offensive posture when anything including humans approach the herd. Sheep and cattle have been farmed across the British Isles for thousands of years, there is good reason why the wolf was hunted to extinction. It is not compatible with animal husbandry.
The wolf is being re-habituated in areas of the USA, Canada and Germany and attacks against human pets and humans are increasing.
The process of habituation is outlined here:
https://notrickszone.com/2021/04/02/since-nature-activists-brought-the-wolf-back-to-germany-humans-threatened-as-encounters-rise/
The wolf is a wild animal. It has never been domesticated.
Well crap, Mr Mewswithaview.
The genus/species of domestic dogs is Canis lupus.
Wolf.
All ALL dogs are wolves.
@Gamecock
Canis Lupus familiaris is the dog we have domesticated and bred for specific tasks. Wolves do not herd sheep or cattle, wolves cannot be trained to provide security, they will run away unless cornered or hungry. Wolves cannot be used as lap dogs. Wolves cannot be used as ratters like Jack Russell terriers. Wolves cannot be used as hunting dogs. Wolves cannot be used for racing.
Wolves are wild animals, have never been domesticated, have retained their wild characteristics and intelligence. They don’t live on a vegetarian diet, they need 2 to 4 KG meat per day to thrive. The herd of sheep in the highlands is the wolf equivalent of a McDonalds drive-through. There is good reason the wolf was removed from the landscape by our ancestors.
And domestic ducks are mallards. Anas platyrhynchos.
Breeding animals to produce desired characteristics doesn’t give you a different species, it gives you varieties.
Your English long haired dachshund is a wolf. Domestic dogs are varieties of wolves, not a different species.
@Gamecock.
To use specific taxonomy, when people refer to introducing wolves in the British isles they are in fact referring to a specific variety known as Canis lupus lupus. This is a wild animal that cannot be tamed and needs up to 4 kg meat every day to thrive. It will not confine itself to deer, rabbits and hares, it will attack livestock and pets and sometimes humans, particularly the unaccompanied weak members of the human species that stray into their territory.
Humans are it’s only serious predator in the British Isles and seeing as we have a deliberate policy not to manage deer population, we are not going to manage wolf populations either until they get out of hand, by then they will have spread across the country like the deer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRl8VqucoE8
We have enough problems to deal with, lets not introduce more.
The wolf is a wild animal. It has never been domesticated.
What is your theory, then, that dogs were bred from alligators?
Has Jennifer Granholm changed sex? Probably easier to get her to do that than change her mind.
2/3 (from memory) of the 700MWh is dedicated to grid balancing and is topped up from low priced grid electricity ready to swoop on the widows’ and orphans’ mites during price spikes.
Not every region has the luxury of having large amounts of water power (Washington State) such as is my situation. The phrase “price volatility” caught my attention. My provider, a Public Utility District (PUD), sets a rate each year in late summer that doesn’t vary for the coming year. So, while there is demand volatility (called Load) there is no price volatility.
The energy supply is coordinated by the Bonniville Power Administration from which the local utility (like my PUD) contract for electricity. BPA Balancing Authority Load and Total VER – blue is Hydro.
They strive to make the Grid as unstable as they can get away with so they can make the most money from providing very profitable temporary power that will most likely work very well over short time spans. They are also building some new gas generation plants where they can profit from very expensive carbon capture. Everything used to replace low cost, reliable power is more and more profitable for them. When the emissions from mining, manufacturing, assembly, maintenance, replacement of parts as needed, disposal of replaced parts, power used in carbon capture, when all that is properly calculated, renewable power results in more emissions, with no benefit, with great loss. Mining and Manufacturing and all the activities that have moved to China and other countries also emit more CO2 than has been saved in Western Countries. This is a lose lose for Western Countries and a win, win for China, India, Russia and some others. If we go to war, we are dependent on others to supply much of what is needed from those likely to be our enemies. China not only supplies much of what Western Countries need, China already actually is the owner of and likely controls huge assets in Western Countries. They likely have enough back doors to shut us down before even firing a first shot.
The Juice series of youtube videos highlights at the start how in the US a perfectly reliable grid operating as a public service was destroyed by the likes of Enron and the government by turning it into a commodity where having plenty of capacity was a bad idea. Reducing the supply allowed profits to be hiked at times of high demand.
Blaming BESS for profiting from the UK’s bazaar Energy policies is misunderstanding the problem and allows the culprits to continue the destruction of the country’s Energy infrastructure.
BESS are making the best of a bad job, in an environment constructed by the Public Sector: do we waste the generated Electricity, or do we store it to be used later? But BESS is in the Private Sector, (dependent on grants? Yes, I expect), employing Engineers, so we can ridicule it, without fear,to no effect. They are staying within the Law and Government Guidance. Are you proposing that they do otherwise?
Of course, the situation is ridiculous, but what do those employed by the company do? And it’s the same for those working for Windmill manufacturers, and other related green industries.
Blame needs to be aimed at those encouraging policies and passing laws, and allowing laws, to continue that defy the Laws of Physics, Chemistry, Economics and plain Common Sense. And the Legacy Media, especially the BBC, need to allow Discussion, so that the Science can flourish, and action taken to ensure that these matters are rectified, including removing those concerned from their positions of influence.
At least Chris Skidmore has gone already! 🙂
Long may Skidmore remain absent.
“do we waste the generated Electricity, or do we store it to be used later? “
That is NOT, in reality, what BESS do. As Paul highlights in the text above they do not have the capacity to do that. The reality is that they store small amounts from any source and get paid for their production via the Balancing Mechanism to make up for the irregularities of renewables.
They buy low and sell high, or that’s their aim. What’s the problem, given that they are in a crazy system?
My point is that it’s the system, put there by ignorant politicians, that needs to change.
And the Legacy Media, especially the BBC, need to allow Discussion, so that the Science can flourish
Yes. Ofcom (UK communication regulator) are currently looking at “GB News” (a small UK media outlet) re GB News’ alledged failure to present “news shows” with due accuracy and impartiality. Which could have interesting ramifications re the endless failure of the BBC to allow non-believers airtime to contradict the beliefs of the believers.
As someone else wrote: The rules state that broadcasters must present news shows with due accuracy and impartiality.
The pathetic capacity of so-called big batteries compared with the amount of power required to ride through windless nights.
https://www.flickerpower.com/index.php/search/categories/renewables/21-12-the-capacity-of-big-batteries
Over at CliScep, Mark Hodgson posted “Chickens Are Coming Home to RoostToo many eggs in one basket” on 17th Feb.
https://cliscep.com/2024/02/17/chickens-are-coming-home-to-roost/?c=149906#comment-149906
Yesterday he added a comment:
“So much for battery storage:
“UK energy storage funds feel the squeeze‘Weak revenue environment’ means UK storage funds are diversifying into overseas markets”
https://tamarindo.global/articles/uk-energy-storage-funds-feel-the-squeeze/
Battery storage revenue for UK Balancing Mechanism assets hit record lows
Largest storage funds trading at ‘significant discounts’
Funds offsetting declines in UK battery revenues by diversifying into overseas markets
The first weeks of 2024 proved to be an extremely challenging period for UK energy storage funds. Data from Modo Energy showed that average battery energy storage revenue for Balancing Mechanism registered assets in December fell 16% to £2.5k/MW, the lowest since Modo Energy began tracking revenue in 2020…
…As Gore Street Capital highlighted last week, even the largest funds are “trading at significant discounts”. In a statement, the fund said that, despite efforts to increase bulk dispatch of batteries into the Balancing Mechanism, in-merit systems remain largely untapped while “wholesale trading has yet to fill the gaps left in declining revenue stacks”….
Mark Hodgson says:18 FEB 24 AT 8:34 PM”
Modo has an interesting piece on their expectations for the T-1 Capacity Market Auction. Based on their analysis of the capacity that has pre-qualified, they reckon that the clearing price could be much lower this year, with a chunk going to new batteries to help them earn a crust.
The T-4 auction might be a bit different…
Let’s keep reminding ourselves that UK produces one per cent of global CO2, that there is not a chance that the Keeling curve at Moana Loa will be checked, that carbon dioxide not carbon has very little effect on the weather,
Let’s keep reminding ourselves that UK produces one per cent of global CO2, that there is not a chance that the Keeling curve at Moana Loa will be checked, that carbon dioxide not carbon has very little effect on the weather,
Are these batteries primarily for frequency control? Which has been an integral feature of fossil-fueled and nuclear power stations for decades
Are these batteries intended for small-scale “peak-lopping” ? Modern fossil-fueled and nuclear power stations can load-follow, but perhaps not as responsive as batteries.
Batteries try to be doing several things at once, in order to build a so called revenue stack. So they may have a position in the market to buy cheap power overnight and sell it into rush hour, much as pumped storage does. But they can at the same time earn money from agreeing to vary their rate of charge or discharge from second to second in response to changes in grid frequency. Frequency excursions needing correction normally only last at most a few minutes, and once over, they can adjust charging to compensate. There are different markets for different timescales of response. They are trying to secure more access to the formal balancing market, where price oscillations can be more extreme and short term, and where location can matter (e.g. absorbing bigger than expected wind surpluses in Scotland, or avoiding the need to turn up compensating generation in the South when wind is curtailed).
Look at the blue system price in the chart here
https://enact.lcp.energy/
Thanks – as always – for the detailed reply IDAU.
I’m sure that it’s obvious to many posters here that the term “grid stability” with reference to batteries is ambigious, in that batteries cannot maintain grid stability for an extended period of insufficient generation.
Planning permission granted for East Ayrshire grid stability scheme
Statkraft has secured planning permission to construct Greener Grid Park in East Ayrshire, utilising 50MW batteries to boost electricity grid stability
https://www.energylivenews.com/2024/02/20/planning-permission-granted-for-east-ayrshire-grid-stability-scheme/
Not hard to figure out why electricity grid stability needs ‘boosting’ – or should that say propping up?
Another Statkraft investment:
https://www.statkraft.com/newsroom/news-and-stories/2023/statkraft-to-acquire-major-loch-ness-pumped-storage-hydro-project-from-intelligent-land-investments-group/
It’s 2.8GWh, 450MW, or about 6 hour duration. Some more detail here
https://www.redjohnpsh.co.uk/
This could be fixed by making the “strike price” the price for supplying power 24/365. That way they would have to include the price of storage in their quoted price.
As it is, the “strike price” seems to be the price at times when it is convenient for them to supply us with power, and does not include storage. That seems to be a separate account, but it shouldn’t be.
“Pick me!”
Appears government doesn’t have their thumb on the scale for ‘backup.’ Grid operators don’t have to pick battery operators. That kills battery storage business model.
Looking at a recent electricity bill, I noticed a strange little notice:
“Energy Rota alpha designation: S”
I looked it up. It has to do with the sharing of blackouts.
In the event of a Level 18 disconnection:
file:///C:/Users/DELL/Downloads/Electricity%20supply%20emergency%20code%20(ESEC)%20(2).pdf
Good to know!
Well that link didn’t work! I can tell you what it does show. Black everywhere for ever. However, with luck, we might only reach Level 16 or 17 disconnection.
Here is a descriptive link that should work Dave.
https://bpgenergy.com/rota-load-disconnection-alpha-identifiers/
This coding only applies to business supplies. They don’t tell the general public on domestic supplies as far as I know.
Regarding CCGTs, the problem for investors is that these plants can seldom reach peak efficiency; they have to be turned off before steam can be generated for the second stage (which is what would make them highly efficient) because wind/solar demands to come on line.
It’s like running a railway where express trains have to give way to locals and the locals can move or stop at a whim.
“They don’t tell the general public on domestic supplies as far as I know.”
Well, they told me! Should I be flattered?
Dave: ‘Should I be flattered” Depends, have you got a little business on the side.
The provisional results of the T-1 Capacity Market auction have been published. It’s a Dutch auction, with prices successively reduced until surplus capacity pulls out. On the event it was 1.6GW of CCGT withdrawing below £40/kW/a that set the auction price (£35.89/kW/a) and volume. What that means is they judged it was better not to invest in maintenance costing over £56m to guarantee being available, but instead to keep going until the plant breaks down, with a clear threat of closure to follow.
Other features include accepting bids from Demand Side Response aggregators for over 700MW, which is of course paid for power cuts – at prices of up to £5,000/MWh to judge from past experience – and a derated 655MW of battery storage.
A bit more detail on the T-1 auction
https://www.current-news.co.uk/t-1-2024-25-capacity-market-auction-clears-at-35-kw-year-40-lower-than-previous-round/
The pathetic capacity of so-called big batteries, starting with the biggest of its kind, at the time, in Australia.
https://www.flickerpower.com/index.php/search/categories/renewables/21-12-the-capacity-of-big-batteries