Fast growing storage operator Zenobe has flagged its intention to build Europe’s biggest storage device at Capenhurst, near Chester.
The 107MWh battery will be the world’s first, the firm claims, to receive reactive power direct from the locality’s DNO. Scottish Power Energy Networks covers Cheshire.
Underpinning the project is a long term contract for reactive power with National Grid- under the ESO’s Pathfinders programme. An arrangement with EDF Trading sets out trading parameters.
When switched on next April, Capenhurst will ease management not only of the region’s absorption of reactive power but also concurrent services in active power.
Services in reactive power help manage voltage levels. The development is a critical management requirement, as grids invite increasing suppliers and supplies of intermittent renewables.
In May 2020 Zenobe won the nine-year contract to deliver 40MVAr of reactive power services. This was the first time a battery has delivered reactive power anywhere in the world.
Zenobe claims Capenhurst’s innovative design enables a direct connection onto the 275kV bay, thus stacking services in active power, capacity and voltage stabilisation.
Power feeds to Merseyside will be stabilised at a ‘substantially lower’ cost to consumers. By 2037 the kit is forecast to cut over a million tonnes of CO2.
Zenobe co-founder Nicholas Beatty told investors yesterday (Wed) that a recent tranche of non-recourse debt pushes the firm’s total investment from Santander to over £60 million. The firm last year raised £150 million of new equity from Infracapital, M&G’s arm supporting assets in European clean infrastructure.
Zenobe left undisclosed the capital cost of what it called “Europe’s biggest battery”.
