Eelpower has acquired 20MW Rock Farm battery energy storage system from Anesco, for an undisclosed amount.
Image: Eelpower’s battery storage system. Photo: Courtesy of Eelpower Ltd
Buying the battery storage system is part of the company’s plan to have a portfolio of 1GW in storage capacity between now and 2022, with an estimated investment of £500m.
The company is an independent provider of flexible energy services and has multiple long-term Firm Frequency Response (FFR) contracts from the National Grid in the UK.
The Rock Farm scheme is considered to be one of the UK’s largest energy storage schemes, located near Ludlow (Shropshire) and connected into the local grid, owned and operated by Western Power Distribution. It consists 16 of 1.25MW BYD manufactured storage units and it was developed and constructed by Anesco and commissioned this June.
The battery storage system will be monitored by Anesco’s specialist O&M service, AnescoMeter and it will be linked to Limejump’s Virtual Power Plant.
Eelpower CEO Mark Simon said: “With the transition to a flexible, decentralised energy system moving at pace, Eelpower is responding to the market opportunity.
“We intend to deploy significant battery capacity – 1GW by 2022, to provide National Grid and local grid companies with the flexibility that the system needs while building a platform for us to profitably trade electricity. Our working relationship with Anesco has been invaluable, helping us to take advantage of the opportunities in the storage market.”
In last November, Eelpower acquired a 10MW storage unit at Leverton in Lincolnshire which was also developed and constructed by Anesco. In the last 10 months, Eelpower and Anesco have worked together on energy storage projects with a total capacity of 33MW.
Presently Anesco has 29 operational sites, comprising of 76 individual battery units that provide a combined capacity of 87MW. The company expects that its total capacity installed will exceed 380MW by 2020.