Europe’s largest battery energy storage facility has opened in East Yorkshire, offering backup power from renewable energy sources to up to 300,000 homes.
The Pillswood battery energy storage system in Cottingham, near Hull, went online this week, a month ahead of schedule due to concerns about electricity shortages for UK households this winter.
Tesla Inc and Harmoney Energy Ltd oversaw construction of the facility, which is the first energised project for the Harmony Energy Income Trust PLC (LSE:HEIT).
It uses Tesla's artificial intelligence (AI) software to configure the supply of energy to the demands of the grid, managing the operation of the batteries that enable National Grid PLC (LSE:NG.) to maximise the efficiency of wind farms by reducing the amount of time a wind farm needs to be switched off due to network constraints or if the network is already oversupplied at that moment.
In short, battery energy storage systems offer “the ability to stabilise and balance the outflow of electricity from renewable sources, and ensure it is used more effectively,” Harmony Energy says on its website. “They are the key to a flexible energy system that can respond instantaneously to changes in supply and demand.”
The need for batteries to manage the renewable energy network comes as it has cost energy firms around £1bn to switch off wind farm turbines because they produce too much power over the past five years, according to National Grid ESO, which estimates the cost will soar to £500mln a year.
The Pillswood facility has a capacity of 196MWh, allowing it to store enough power for up to 300,000 homes for two hours.
Bringing the opening forward could potentially help meet the increased energy demand over the colder months.
“The completion and energisation of the Pillswood scheme, the largest of its kind in Europe by energy capacity, is a significant milestone for Harmony Energy Income Trust, being the first of six similar projects the Trust intends to deliver in the coming year,” said Harmony Energy director Peter Kavanagh in a statement.
“All stakeholders have recognised the importance of achieving energisation for this project ahead of winter, and we would like to thank Tesla, G2 Energy and Northern Powergrid for their efforts in delivering the project ahead of schedule despite a very challenging geopolitical and global supply chain environment," he added.
Tesla’s AutoBidder algorithmic trading platform has been used in the past two years to manage the Holes Bay and Contego battery storage projects also developed by Harmony Energy in conjunction with FRV.