Member Article

Energy storage and its place in the low carbon future

A leading UK smart grid project, has documented its ambitious 24-month undertaking to specify, procure, install and commission six energy storage devices across live electricity networks in the North of England in a new video aimed at industry experts.

The film which can be seen here, focuses on one of Europe’s largest and most influential trials of electrical energy storage (EES), has been successfully conducted by Northern Powergrid and its partners, British Gas, EA Technology, Newcastle University and Durham University, as part of the £54m the Customer-Led Network Revolution project (CLNR)..

Key members of the project team explain in the video how six energy storage devices, with capacities of 5MWh, 200KWh and 100KWh, have been sited at rural and urban network locations across the North East and Yorkshire.

Ian Lloyd from Northern Powergrid, said: “We chose trial networks with different kinds of construction and customers to paint a comprehensive picture of how energy storage works on different networks. Collectively these offer a representative sample equivalent to 80% of the UK’s whole electricity distribution network and means the real-world trial results and knowledge could be adopted and applied by other UK distribution network operators (DNOs).

“We’re assessing the potential for energy storage which could improve network efficiency, defer the need for network reinforcement and help all UK DNOs rise to the challenges presented by a low carbon future.”

The EES devices are being monitored and optimised by an advanced active network management system developed for the CLNR project, GUS (Grand Unified Scheme)

Electrical energy storage is just one of several network technology solutions being trialled by the CLNR project, which aims to identify the most cost-effective ways to help network operators manage peak demand more effectively, support the connection of more renewable energy sources and the increasing uptake of low carbon technologies, to help the UK meet its decarbonisation targets.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lexi Gerry .