Anglian Water is to buy flow storage units from RedT to co-locate with solar PV at a treatment works. The water firm aims to work out the potential of longer-duration storage in maximising use of solar power.
The deal is for four of RedT’s flow machines, totalling 60kW/300kWh. These will sit alongside 450kW of PV at a ‘pathfinder’ site in Norfolk.
While the main benefit of these kind of installations is to reduce power bills by being able to store and use solar instead of drawing from the grid at peak times, the technology also enables upside revenues from grid services, including frequency response, as well as arbitrage.
The firms will work with aggregator Open Energi to optimise consumption and stack revenues.
Long view
Because flow machines can provide power output for many hours, they also receive higher Capacity Market (CM) payments than shorter duration batteries, following derating to storage in the CM last year.
“This system will allow Anglian to harness more cheap solar on site and increase generation from 248kWp to 450kWp. Open Energi’s intelligent software means these assets can be flexibly managed to deliver the best possible outcome for businesses, cutting costs, creating revenue and making the most of renewable power generated on-site,” said RedT CEO Scott McGregor.
Jason Tucker, director of Alliances and Integrated Supply Chain at Anglian Water, suggested the project goes beyond co-location and to integration of the assets.
“Using RedT’s flexible energy storage infrastructure alongside Open Energi’s smart software will allow us to unlock more solar power, as well as allowing us to participate in grid services to further reduce our energy bills,” said Tucker. “Most importantly, this collaborative project will provide us with invaluable insight to support our future energy strategy, as one of the largest energy ‘prosumers’ in the East of England.”
Anglian has a £77m power bill. In order to cut it, and its carbon emissions, the firm plans to deploy a further 30MW of solar PV over the next 18 months via a 25 year PPA contract with HBS New Energies & Macquarie Principal Finance.
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