Fluence will supply three 20MW battery storage systems to UK Power Reserve as the firm starts to build out sites with 15-year Capacity Market agreements secured in 2016.
UK Power Reserve said all three sites would be operational this winter and are flexible enough to provide a range of balancing services, as well as capacity.
The firm, recently acquired by Sembcorp, currently plans a 120MW storage portfolio.
Paul McCusker, Fluence MD for UK & Ireland, said the two companies had been working together since before the 2016 capacity auction, with UKPR now “keen to get the assets in the ground”.
“They are the leaders in flexible generation in the UK. We’ve seen what they did in the gas and flexibility business, and they are well positioned to do the same with batteries,” he said.
McCusker told The Energyst that the UK market is starting to settle down “following a huge amount of speculative interest that … wasn’t ever real”.
He suggested investors were starting to “place small bets” in storage. However, he said that infrastructure investors will need greater regulatory certainty before making large investments, and medium-term visibility of revenue streams and products from those procuring services.
Without that visibility, there is a risk that investors “will choose a very low cost, single service asset, which is not good, if the idea is to provide flexibility to meet the changing needs of National Grid”, said McCusker.
He added that storage and optimisation costs would continue to decline, though warned of potential spikes due to “shocks and disruption”.
“There is a lot happening on the world stage today that can have an impact and put a strain on those costs and reductions,” said McCusker.
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