Ecotricity founder Dale Vince is “excited” the company is now ready to deploy energy storage. Image: Ecotricity.

Ecotricity has announced plans for a pilot storage project near its head office in Stroud in the company’s first move into utility scale storage.

The green utility has not yet specified the services its 2.5MW system will provide but has said it will begin by charging the battery with renewable power to be delivered to the grid during periods of high demand.

Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity, said: “We’ve been looking at energy storage for some time now – waiting for the technology to make it possible. And we’re excited that we’re now at that point.

“Not many people know that, as an energy company, we have to manage the energy our customers use every half an hour – energy storage will better allow us to do that, meaning we can more efficiently supply energy and better manage the green energy we generate.

“This is a trial project for us – and we’re going to learn a lot about energy storage and how it can help us. And we’re hoping it will be the first of many more energy storage projects to come.”

The project will be located at Ecotricity’s Wallbridge building in Stroud, after Stroud District Council recently approved the site for change of use. A supplier and technology provider has not yet been selected and it remains unclear how the solution will be branded or when the install will be completed.

The announcement of a grid scale storage facility comes after Ecotricity was expected to carry out trials of its own domestic storage offering, the ‘Black Box’, which the utility has spent five years developing.