Our first grid-scale battery storage project
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We always love letting you know about the green projects your support makes possible. Today, we’re thrilled to let you know that we’ve reached a key stage of our grid-scale battery storage project, with the battery housing now on site.
Remind me, what is the project?
Our wind and storage project at Alveston wind park will be key to tackling some of the challenges ahead, providing a highly effective way to capture clean energy and balance energy generation against demand. The 10MW/24MWh battery will be co-located alongside our 6.9MW wind farm in Alveston, Gloucestershire.
The battery will help us manage exposure to the times of day when energy is most expensive. It will also allow us to support the National Grid as it transitions to net zero, by feeding in stored green energy at times of peak demand, reducing the need for fossil fuel generation to be cranked up elsewhere. With our Smart Grids platform, we’ve devised a sophisticated optimisation model to despatch the stored energy according to system needs.
What’s been happening recently?
The Ecotricity branded containers which will house racks of batteries were delivered to Alveston and placed onto small foundations. We couldn’t put the batteries in them yet, as they would have been far too heavy to lift.
Putting the batteries inside is next, alongside cabling everything up. The containers already have all the safety and control systems installed, and the substation they will link to has been operational since 2016 and is currently connected to the windmills on site.
Watch the video below to see it all coming together.
You may have noticed the windmills aren’t turning and that is intentional: they have been temporarily turned off, so we can isolate the substation for safety reasons whilst we are working inside it. You may also have seen that some of the containers are missing the word “c” off Ecotricity - this isn’t a typo! This is where the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) will be installed.
Here at Ecotricity, we’re all very excited to see the progress of this project. Ecotricity’s Head of Smart Grids, Mark Meyrick, told us that:
“This project is a first for us and will enable us to manage demand for renewable energy, as well as develop a greater understanding of our future deployment of storage for flexibility requirements.”
We will keep you updated with the final stages of this important project, and in the meantime, if you have any feedback on anything you’d like us to cover in our next update, please email us at billsintomills@ecotricity.co.uk.
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