The landscape

for battery
energy
storage in
Great Britain

December 2021
 Contents
The aim of this report 1

Why we need flexibility 2

Why energy storage? 3

Why Lithium ion? 4

Batteries in Great Britain 5

The future 6

Key trends 7

A case study - Cowley, Oxford 9

The landscape for battery energy storage in Great Britain

The aim of this report...
Electricity generation is responsible for 40%*
of global CO2 emissions.

We need to decarbonise it urgently.

So, how do we do it?

We need to completely rethink the way that we generate, store, distribute

and consume energy. This involves the electrification of pretty much everything –
heat, transport, industry, food, shipping.

Electricity is key to the future energy system, but our current system is built around
coal and gas power stations – this needs to change. Decarbonising electricity means
retiring these old plants and building low-carbon infrastructure for the future.

At Modo, we track the performance of battery energy storage system (BESS) assets
across all energy markets and ancillary services. So that energy companies, asset
operators, the investment community, insurers and banks, can build, operate and
optimise these new assets with confidence.

The aim of this report is to provide accessible and impartial information to help
explain what’s happening in the GB energy storage sector. If you’re reading this,
please feel free to use, copy and distribute it however you like.

Finally, we’d like to take this opportunity to celebrate the people working hard to
build the future energy system and make it a reality.

Yours,

Quentin Scrimshire (Co-founder) and Tim Overton (Co-founder)

*according the International Energy Agency’s Global Energy Review 2021

Why we need flexibility
Every year, National Grid Electricity System Operator (NGESO), the organisation

responsible for managing the electricity system in Great Britain, produces a series of

models forecasting what the future could look like. These models are collectively

called the Future Energy Scenarios (FES).

The latest FES report indicates that by 2035 the installed

capacity of wind and solar will more than double:

91GW

36GW R
LA
SO
D
IN
W

Solar and wind generation are critical to hitting climate

targets, but they present a challenge for managing the
electricity system.

The challenge is that both solar and wind generation are intermittent – their

generation is dictated by external weather factors. This means that if there is a drop

in generation (for example due to a large generator coming offline unexpectedly, or

due to a wind or solar forecast being significantly different f rom reality) NGESO

cannot decide to turn on wind or solar. To resolve this, there needs to be flexible

generation on the system that can be turned on or off.

Why energy storage?

The flexibility in the electricity system required to enable the penetration of
renewable generation is currently predominately facilitated by gas-fired power
generation (see figure below from FES 2021).

60
DEMAND-SIDE FLEX
50 ENERGY STORAGE
INTERCONNECTORS
40
BIOMASS
Flexibility (GW)

Storage provides
NEEDS TO BE

30
a means for
REPLACED

GAS balancing supply

20 and demand on
the electricity
system without
10 over-reliance on
fossil fuels
0
COAL
2020

It’s an over-simplification, but energy storage can be used to bottle-up excess

electricity (e.g. mid-day solar) to use at periods of high demand on the system.

The support that energy storage provides enables the ongoing decarbonisation of
the electricity system and provides the system operator with a powerful tool for
ensuring security of electricity supply.
Why lithium-ion?
Lithium-ion is a type of battery cell that
uses lithium ions as a key component of its A brief history of
lithium-ion
electrochemistry. Lithium-ion cells are all
around us – in our phones, laptops, and 1977
electric vehicles. They’re tried and tested Michael Whittingham
technology and crucial to our transition to a invents the first lithium-
low-carbon economy.

ion rechargeable battery

Compared with traditional battery

technology, lithium-ion batteries charge
faster, last longer and have a higher power
density. They’re also capable of doing 1991
Sony releases the first
thousands of charging cycles with minimal
commercial lithium-ion
reduction in battery life.
battery

What makes lithium-ion so 2014

suitable for grid-scale energy UK’s first grid-scale
storage? battery energy storage
site comes online
Fast Easy to (Leighton Buzzard, 6MW)
response build

Low
environmental
impact 2018
UK reaches 1 GW
Tried &
Easy to milestone of grid-scale
maintain and
tested operate battery energy storage

Page 4
 Batteries in GB

Great Britain is a global leader in

BESS deployment, with over 1.3 GW

(1.5 GWh) currently operational and

many more GW planned to be

built in the next decade.

72
Here are some of the key

Operational sites
names in the space:

1,360 MW
Installed capacity
Owners

429 MW

Pivot Power (EDF Renewables)

Operators

289 MW

Page 5
The future
There are multiple ways to forecast

3,790 MW
the build-out of energy storage in Modo BESS forecast
Great Britain.

At Modo we produce a short-term

forecast based on secured capacity
market contracts, financial

1,360 MW
committments, and press releases.

However, the FES includes a

forecast based on the needs of the
wider electricity system in Great
Britain to produce a view over the
next 30 years.


FES - Leading the way scenario

60
TOR AGE
S
50

COAL
40
BIOMASS

ECTORS
INTERCONN
GAS RBON CA
PTURE &
STORAGE
R G Y CA
BIO-ENE

HYDROGEN

Page 6
 Key trends - building bigger
There is a significant trend towards larger power assets being

developed, with economies of scale, but also legislative changes.

In July 2020, legislation was introduced to make it easier to build larger assets,
increasing the size of asset that could be consented by local planning authorities.

In November 2020, the department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
(BEIS) granted Intergen consent for a 320MW/640MWh battery in Essex.

The table below shows the largest existing assets, compared against the size of
some of the largest assets under development.

Rated
Energy

Site Owner Online?

Power Capacity
Minety Huaneng Group 100 MW 136 MWh Yes
EXISTING

Thurcroft Gresham House 50 MW 75 MWh Yes

Wickham Market Gresham House 50 MW 75 MWh Yes

Oxford Superhub Oxford City Council 52 MW 55 MWh Yes

Kemsely Pivot Power 50 MW 50 MWh Yes

Trafford Carlton Power 250 MW 500 MWh No

PLANNED

Blackhillock Zenobe 200 MW 400 MWh No

Spalding Intergen 175 MW 350 MWh No

S25BS4 Sembcorp 150 MW 300 MWh No

Project E2 Gresham House 150 MW 150 MWh No

Key trends - building longer
Alongside there being a trend to develop assets with

larger rated power (megawatts), there is more and

more attention being devoted to longer

duration systems.

More 2-hour
systems?
A longer duration battery is able to provide its

maximum power for longer periods of time.

Most assets built until 2021 were 1 hour capacity.

According to the Capacity Market Register this is likely to remain the case until
2024.
Number of si

10
8
6
4
2
0
2022 2023 2024
Delivery year
1-hour 1.5-hour 2-hour

Page 8
A case study

Page 9
Cowley, Oxford
Energy Superhub Oxford is a government-backed demonstrator

project comprising of six partners, led by Pivot Power (part of EDF Renewables).
The partners include public, business and academic organisations, all working
together to lower Oxford’s carbon emissions and clean up its air.

The project is showcasing a combination of battery energy storage (BESS)

assets, ground source heating and electric vehicle charging infrastructure to
support Oxford’s ambitious plans to be net-zero by 2040.

The Cowley BESS will combine a lithium-ion (50MW/50MWh) and vanadium-

flow (2MW/5MWh) battery to operate as one hybrid system. The lithium-ion
system went live in June 2021 and is helping National Grid ESO to balance grid
frequency and ensure security of electricity supply. The BESS will provide an
estimated energy throughput of 4GWh / year, which is equivalent to running
one of the UK’s nuclear power stations at full power for 4 hours.

Site name Energy Superhub Oxford

Owner Pivot Power (EDF Renewables)

Developer Pivot Power (EDF Renewables)

Operator Habitat Energy

System Integrator Wärtsilä / Invinity Energy Systems

Commissioning date July 2021

Rated power 52 MW

Energy capacity 55 MWh

Wholesale markets (day-ahead and

Market participation intraday), Balancing Mechanism, and
Ancillary Services (Dynamic Containment)

Page 10