Norway’s Statkraft will optimise a 6MW/6MWh battery in Dorking for Grid Battery Storage Limited (GBSL), trading its output and managing firm frequency response services.
The firms have signed a three-year agreement with the battery expected to enter service in September.
The deal follows Statkraft’s recent announcement that it plans to diversify further into decentralised energy. It is looking at new retail models in the UK as well as other European markets and also plans to develop EV charging services and expand into areas such as data centre development.
Announcing the GBSL agreement, Pieter Schipper, senior vice president, Market Access and Continental Assets at Statkraft, said the firm aimed to be the “leading partner” for storage and flexible generation developers seeking to monetise their assets in contracted and traded markets.
“We accomplish this by leveraging our trading teams’ expertise in managing renewables generation in short term energy markets, and our advanced asset optimisation and algorithmic trading capabilities,” said Schipper.
Statkraft claims its virtual power plant is one of the world’s largest and its push into the UK market will increase competition in an increasingly busy niche.
GBSL director and co-founder James McKellar said Statkraft had found “optimal operating and financial solutions” for the project and that working with the state-owned utility had been “an education … in what is a very complicated business”.
Statkraft also has a stake in UK-based flexibility aggregator Limejump through its Statkraft Ventures fund.
GBSL has a partnership in place with Siemens to develop 22MW of battery storage by early next year and the two firms are attempting to build a storage-as-a-service business, whereby they own and operate batteries behind the meter at customer sites and share benefits with client businesses.They are targeting industrial firms that do not already have on-site generation.
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