What simply occurred? Operators have flipped the swap on Europe’s largest battery vitality storage system, bringing on-line a system able to storing sufficient electrical energy to energy 300,000 properties for as much as two hours.
The facility, positioned in Cottingham, East Yorkshire, UK, was overseen by renewable energy firm Harmony Energy Limited and makes use of Tesla Megapack expertise. The system can retailer as much as 196 MWh (megawatt hours) of electrical energy in a single cycle and can present balancing providers to the vitality grid whereas additionally permitting for fossil gasoline sources to get replaced by renewable vitality sources like photo voltaic farms and wind generators.
The battery vitality storage system was constructed adjoining to the Creyke Beck substation, which is the place the Dogger Bank offshore wind farm is slated to go stay subsequent summer season.
Each Tesla Megapack can retailer over 3 MWh of vitality, or sufficient to energy a mean of three,600 properties for one hour. Harmony did not say what number of Megapacks it deployed within the construct however primarily based on basic math and the development picture accompanying the press launch, there are not less than a number of dozen models on the web site.
Harmony stated the challenge was initially supposed to turn out to be operational over two phases – one in December 2022 and the second in March 2023 – however they determined to convey the whole lot on-line now in anticipation of the difficult winter interval.
Last month, the workplace of gasoline and electrical energy markets (Ofgem) stated the UK may expertise a gasoline scarcity this winter because of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Gas is accountable for producing between 40 p.c and 60 p.c of the UK’s electrical energy, and a scarcity may have a serious affect on energy manufacturing.
The facility can be run utilizing Autobidder, a real-time buying and selling and management platform from Tesla that enables utility corporations to monetize battery belongings. Autobidder is already overseeing a number of different battery storage initiatives together with the Hornsdale Power Reserve (HPR) in South Australia.
Harmony stated that is the primary of six related initiatives it intends to ship within the coming years.