In the face of a massive renewable energy build-out, more batteries will be needed to balance the grid. But stabilizing the grid will not be possible without flexible gas back-up.
“Even if you oversize the amount of [renewables] generation you need considerably, you would still need a battery so huge it would be unfeasible. You can’t account for the days when, in the middle of winter, the wind doesn’t blow for a week,” said Statera’s managing director Tom Vernon
“A battery that is load shifting for a month at a time is only doing three to four cycles per year so it would have to be unfeasibly large and very cheap,” he explained, “and we are a long, long way from that.”
One of Statera’s latest flagship project, the 49.99 MW battery storage project at Stocking Pelham, UK (pictured), was completed in under six months. The site comprises seven E-houses, 27 inverters, 12km of cable and 150,000 lithium-ion battery cells and is connected to a nearby 400kV substation via a 132kV grid connection.
Statera and Statkraft co-develop mega-VPP in the UK
The Norwegian energy giant Statkraft and Britain’s flexible grid specialist Statera are currently working on co-developing a 1 GW virtual power plant (VPP) in the UK, based on a 15-year strategic partnership. Consisting of reciprocating gas and energy storage, the VPP will match demand with supply from various energy sources “within seconds.”
Statera, backed by InfraRed Capital Partners, sees the deal as a safety net to develop, build, own and operate flexible gas generation and energy storage assets. Under the deal, Statera will provide one of the UK’s largest battery facilities to store excess renewable energy. It will also deliver gas reciprocating engines to generate electricity at times of under-production or peak demand.
As soon as new assets come online, they will be integrated into Statkraft’s VPP and advanced trading platform. The hybrid units – energy storage and recip engines – will complement Statkraft’s 3.8 GW renewable generation portfolio in Britain by greatly enhancing its flexibility. Ultimately, the partnership is meant to bring Statkraft’s VPP capacity to 2 GW.