Kiwi Power made additional £2.5m investment at the project, making it the UK’s largest council-owned battery storage site
The 30MW Fideoak Mill battery storage project is located in Taunton, UK. (Credit: Kiwi Power Ltd.)
Kiwi Power has commissioned the final phase of 5MW capacity at the South Somerset District Council’s 30MW Fideoak Mill battery storage project in Taunton, UK.
The firm has made additional £2.5m investment at the project, making it the UK’s largest council-owned battery storage site.
Kiwi Power said it has installed its proprietary hardware, Fruit, on all 22 battery units, allowing the £12m site to provide grid balancing services to National Grid.
Kiwi Power optimisation head Thomas Jennings said that the councils across the UK are seeking to make investments in sustainability and carbon emissions as they seek to meet increasingly stringent targets.
Jennings said: “Landmark projects such as Fideoak are vital for demonstrating how investments in battery storage and renewables are value adding and income generating.”
“With rapidly changing market dynamics, SSDC will be relying on our co-optimisation team to ensure that the £12m asset always participates in the right market at the right time so that it delivers the maximum return possible for the investment.”
First 25MW of the project in June 2020
Kiwi Power, together with the council and Opium Power, commissioned the first 25MW of the project in June 2020, and the final phase has now been completed.
A total of 67 Fruits are synchronised together at the site, allowing it to participate in any of the UK’s 15 flexibility markets.
Opium Power director David Owen said: “The 30MW Taunton Battery Energy Storage System is the first of several very exciting joint ventures with local authorities and private sector investors that Opium Power is progressing to deliver stability to a sustainably powered grid.
“We currently have an additional 110MW in design and build on three new battery storage systems, and we intend to work with Kiwi Power on all of them.”