The 50MW Brigg battery (pictured) has been completed along with a project in Peterborough of the same size. Image: Wärtsilä.
Centrica has completed the deployment of a ~50MW energy storage capacity almost simultaneously with two projects in the UK that are able to respond to peaks in demand within two minutes.
The 49MW Roosecote project has been completed at the site of a former power station, while the 50MW gas-fired projects in Peterborough and Brigg in North East Lincolnshire have also been completed.
Mark Futyan, distributed power systems director at Centrica Business Solutions, said: “We’re seeing increasing demand for flexible power so this is an important demonstration of how we can help our customers to navigate the new energy landscape and deliver a variety of end-to-end solutions including onsite generation, demand side response and energy storage.”
The power plants form part of a £180m investment by Centrica into a series of flexible generation and storage facilities announced in December 2016. This follows the company’s exit from traditional generation in favour of flexibility, as Futyan explained yesterday at a conference in London.
“We are one of the big six energy suppliers, we were also one of the top six generation capacity in the UK as well, but we have changed our strategy. We've exited that; we've disposed of wind farms and large CCGTs, our generation is now all flexibility – it's the only generation we have,” he said.
“We are converted.”