Enel has commissioned the 25MW Tynemouth battery energy storage system in Newcastle, north-east England.
Image: SmartestEnergy secured contract to provide the commercial services for the battery storage facility. Photo: courtesy of SmartestEnergy Ltd.
Located in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside, near Newcastle, in the UK, the €20m stand-alone battery energy storage system (BESS) is supported by a four-year Enhanced Frequency Response contract with National Grid, under which it will offer grid balancing services.
The project will participate to ancillary services and capacity market tenders after four years.
Developed by Enel’s Global Thermal Generation division, the system uses lithium-ion batteries with capacity of 25 MW/12.5MWh.
Enel had purchased the Tynemouth facility in May 2017 from European-based energy developer and operator Element Power, for undisclosed amount.
The Italian company plans to remotely manage the project from its global thermal generation monitoring room in Italy.
Enel global thermal generation head Enrico Viale said: “The commissioning of Tynemouth is an important milestone for Enel since it is the Group’s first utility-scale, stand-alone battery energy storage system, showing the potential of this promising solution in addressing the challenges of the energy transition.
“Battery energy storage systems provide a solution for flexible and fast services to ensure the stability of electricity power systems, while, when coupled to existing power plants, they allow for an optimization of performance and an increase in plant flexibility.
“The utility-scale BESS market shows a great potential for growth, which is why Enel is developing a portfolio of such projects in some of the sector’s most promising countries worldwide.”
UK-based energy firm RES served as the engineering procurement and construction contractor for the project. It will also support the Italian firm in the operation and maintenance of Tynemouth BESS as part of a four-year contract.
Viale earlier said: “Due to the increasing role of renewable energy sources, the growing need of grid balancing services and the fast reduction of technology costs, the BESS market is expected to grow exponentially in all geographies in the next years.”
In January, SmartestEnergy secured contract to provide the commercial services for the operations of the Tynemouth lithium-ion battery storage project.