Limejump to optimise 90MW of SSDC Opium’s storage

Limejump, the Shell-owned monetiser of grid-scale batteries, is teaming up with SSDC Opium Power to run two more units totalling 90 MW across the south of England.

SSDC Opium, itself a partnership of Yeovil-based Opium Power and South Somerset District Council, has a battery portfolio running to 140MW.

Its 40MW installation in Fareham, Hampshire is the UK’s largest battery system to be owned by a local authority.  From next month, Limejump will optimise it fully for participation in the National Grid’s Dynamic Containment market.

Limejump will embrace a further 20MW of capacity at Fareham, when an extension goes live this summer.

At Fideoak Mill, near Taunton, SSDC has run 30MW since 2020. Late last year, the joint venture entrusted that site’s coulomb crèche to Limejump’s care.  The firm now monetises Fideoak Mill for Dynamic Containment and wholesale trades.

Last July Limejump began optimising Penso Power’s 100MW battery construct in Wiltshire. Linked across two sites near Minety, it is the largest battery to be optimised for any of National Grid’s ancillary services.

Limejump boasts over 44,000 hours of stand-by optimisation in the UK flexibility market, built up since it began optimising battery energy storage systems (BESS) in 2016.

The firm’s automated scheduling optimisation algorithms, allied to advanced forecasting techniques, will see SSDC Opium’s full BESS portfolio contributing to ancillary service markets and trading wholesale power.

Limejump’s head of flexibility Genna Boyle said: “As the UK looks to invest in and secure a more sustainable energy future, we’re working harder than ever to support the deployment of renewables and BESS across the UK”.

She said the firm anticipated that the government’s delayed energy security strategy would lift restrictions on onshore wind and facilitate more BESS and solar.

“National Grid ESO’s Leading the Way FES scenario in 2021 predicted up to 13.1GW of BESS by 2030, so we have a real challenge ahead of us to achieve this”, Boyle added.

Opium Power claims a 550 MW pipeline of projects in development.

Boss Jason Dobson added: “We are delighted that Phase 1 of SSDC Opium Power’s Hampshire BESS project is now live. and we are looking forward to working with Limejump going forward to maximise the revenue income from this site that will help supplement and fund SSDC’s public services.”