VLC Energy, a joint venture between Low Carbon and VPI Immingham, will connect 50MW of battery storage to the grid by the year end.
The firm has contracted independent connections provider g2 Energy to start works in March. G2 will handle the 132kV & 33kV contestable works plus all client-side design and build civil and electrical balance of plant works for the two battery storage projects at Cleator in Cumbria and Glassenbury in Kent.
Cleator is a 10MW development, while Glassenbury will have a capacity of 40MW when complete.
The projects were awarded contracts under National Grid’s first £66m Enhanced Frequency Response (EFR) tender, developed by the system operator to procure rapid response system balancing capability. Providers have to deliver 100% active power output within a second of a frequency deviation occurring on the transmission system.
Of the 64 sites that made up the 201MW total capacity procured in the first round, 61 are battery assets.
EDF, Vattenfall, Eon, Element Power, RES and Belectric were other winners in the first EFR tender. Since then battery developers have successfully bid into the UK capacity market, winning hundreds of megawatts of contracts to help provide security of supply over winter.
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