The UK Government should look to improve the market framework for energy storage in order to stimulate investment in the technology, a report issued by the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee has found.
The ‘Resilience of the Electricity System’ report, released on Thursday, concluded that storage should be one of a number of technologies in need of support given its propensity to “strengthen energy system resilience” in the future and recommended that a number of steps be taken to attract investment.
Contributing to the report, the Electricity Storage Network has proposed a target of 2GW of new storage be added to the UK grid by 2020 – a target agreed upon by industry and the government – and the report has recommended that the government should examine whether storage can be brought under the Contracts for Difference (CfD) regime rather than the Capacity Market.
The recommendation came on the same day that the Energy and Climate Change Committee (ECCC) released its ‘Fuelling the Debate’ report – its last before the General Election in May – calling on the government to prioritise allocations within the CfD regime early in the next Parliament in order to “bring forward investment and avoid hiatus”.
Both reports were warmly welcomed by industry yesterday and Renewable Energy Association Chief Executive Dr Nina Skorupska said she was encouraged by the ECCC’s recognition of the importance of storage technologies in the future.
“A stable regulatory framework which provides long-term certainty for investment is crucial to the development of renewable energy.
“We are firm in the belief that other technologies, including marine, solar and geothermal can also play a huge role in meeting our energy needs, and Tim Yeo’s call for evidence based policy is therefore particularly welcome,” Skorupska added.
Meanwhile the Institute of Engineering and Technology said it was pleased that the Science and Technology Select Committee had taken on board its recommendation for whole systems thinking, but warned the underlying issues of system resilience had become “significantly more diverse” since the 1970s.
“These include large amounts of self-dispatching renewable generation, the potential electrification of transport and space heating, and the rise of the smart consumer and smart home.
“These increase complexity and require a level of engineering coordination and integration that the current industry structure and market regime does not provide.
“We look forward to continue working with the Government and others to continue to move this debate forward,” Dr Simon Harrison of the IET said.
Earlier this week a panel of industry experts at the Solar Investment and Finance Conference said that a storage boom could “revolutionise” the UK solar market, with technology maturation and an expected halving of storage costs over the next three years set to make storage solutions more profitable.