National Grid picks eight winners in 200-MW EFR tender

Author: Portland General Electric. License: Creative Commons, Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic.

The UK's National Grid (LON:NG) said today that eight bids have been successful in its 200-MW Enhanced Frequency Response (EFR) tender.

This is the first such exercise held by the system operator as it seeks to adopt new technologies in response to the increasing penetration of renewable energy which is causing frequency volatility.

National Grid received bids from a total of 37 providers, most of which from battery assets. Of the 64 unique sites taking part, 61 are coming from battery assets, two from demand reduction and one from thermal generation, it said.

The winners, which are all storage projects, have been awarded four-year contracts.

"These awards show that we can work with industry to bring forward new technology and I believe storage has much to contribute to the flexible energy system of tomorrow. This is the beginning of an exciting new chapter for the industry," said Cordi O'Hara, director of UK System Operator, National Grid.

Below is a table providing details of the eight bids that have been accepted at a total cost of GBP 65.95 million (USD 86.6m/EUR 78.7m)

Provider Name	Site Location/Name	Enhanced Response (MW)
EDF Energy Renewables	T_WBURB-4	49
Vattenfall	Pen Y Cymoedd	22
Low Carbon	Cleator	10
Low Carbon	Glassenbury	40
E.on UK	Sheffield	10
Element Power	TESS	25
RES	RESEFR7-PT	35
Belectric	Nevendon	10
Total		201

Earlier this month, SmartestEnergy, a purchaser of electricity from independent generators, called on the National Grid to provide more certainty on future frequency response capacity to support the emerging energy storage market. It says that the pipeline of battery projects is estimated at at least 1 GW and that a significant amount of storage capacity will remain untapped.

(GBP 1.0 = USD 1.313/EUR 1.194)

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!