UK Starts Trial Of Pioneering Energy Storage Project

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Energy and Climate Change Amber Rudd MP has welcomed the start of trials at the largest electricity storage facility of its type in Europe. After extensive testing of the giant battery – known as the Smarter Network Storage facility at Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire – it will now be trialled for two years by UK Power Networks, which distributes electricity in the East of England, London and the South East.

As the future of electricity networks changes in the coming years it is
essential that network operators invest in new and innovative
technologies that allow them to adapt and continue providing the
best service to their customers. By broadening the industry’s experience of large-scale storage in the most cost-efficient way,the project should help demonstrate how batteries can be used to make electricity networks more efficient and enable more low carbon technologies to be incorporated into existing electricity networks.

The Smarter Network Storage project has involved installing a 6MW/10MWh ”big battery” at one of Leighton Buzzard’s main substation sites.

The knowledge and learning from the trials, which includes research
and recommendations into future regulatory and market frameworks for storage, will be shared with other network operators, trade associations, the Government and regulator Ofgem.

Smarter Network Storage was awarded funding of £13.2m from
the Low Carbon Networks Fund.