UK Power Reserve (UKPR) has partnered with Total Gas and Power to deliver Demand Side Response (DSR) and aggregation services to UK electricity market players.
“The relationship will utilise UKPR’s established position as an owner and operator of power assets and its first-hand knowledge of the needs of National Grid and distribution operators” UKPR said in a statement.
The joint venture is aimed at helping customers “get the best out of the UK’s increasingly decentralized energy mix” UKPR said, adding that this would work by identifying their supply and demand behaviours and leveraging them to access rewards, for example for increased consumption when demand is low, which would help balance the system.
Both demand side response, aggregation and capacity market advisory services will be available through the partnership, it said.
“The relationship is already yielding strong results” UKPR underlined, adding that there had been so far around a dozen clients being referred to UKPR to discuss how companies can take advantage of the Capacity Mechanisms Auctions and ancillary services like Short Term Balancing Reserve (STOR) and Fast Reserve (FR). UKPR has previously provided energy service including aggregation and balancing services to Combine Heat and Power (CHP) operators and large industrial users such as Pilkington and Network Rail, it said.
“This partnership allows us to broaden our customer base and work alongside one of the most visionary energy companies in the sector as we expand our existing portfolio of nearly 700MW of generation assets” commented UKPR’s Commercial Director Sam Wither.
Moreover, UKPR recently pre-qualified 1.5GW of capacity ahead of the 2016 Capacity Market auction. This includes small-scale, flexible gas-fired generation, DSR and 215MW of storage.
“UKPR believes that battery storage and DSR is an essential part of an efficient, low carbon energy system” the company said.
UK Power Reserve has a portfolio of fast-ramping, gas-fired power stations of about 20 MW each “which are essential for balancing the UK power grid as more intermittent renewables come online” it stressed.
Its portfolio totals 700MW of thermal generation assets, of which 185MW across 14 existing power stations and over 500MW of committed investment in 26 more gas-fired power stations which it is in the process of building by 2018.
UKPR’s assets service the Wholesale & Trade, Ancillary Services and Capacity markets.