Statkraft has officially begun construction on its Greener Grid Park, which aims to improve grid stability on the Welsh electricity grid.
Welsh First Minister Eulned Morgan attended the project’s official ground-breaking ceremony near Swansea, alongside Statkraft officials and the Ambassador of Norway to the UK, Tore Hattrem.
The Greener Grid Park will use six rotating stabilisers to mimic the turbines of a traditional power station, allowing the generator to keep electricity flowing to Welsh homes and businesses during grid faults and stabilise grid frequencies without using fossil fuels like many other support plants of this nature.
Statkraft was awarded a stability contract by the National Energy System Operator (NESO) in 2022 (under the organisation’s previous name and branding) as part of phase three of its Stability Pathfinder Programme. NESO states that contacts awarded under the scheme will lead to £14.9 billion of savings for the network between 2025 and 2035. Swansea Greener Grid Park will be the third scheme to use rotating stabilisers to deliver grid stability, with the first two schemes already operating in Moray, Scotland, and Lister Drive in Liverpool. According to Statkraft, these two schemes are already saving 216,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
In late November, Statkraft took delivery of 620 battery units for its 200MW Thornton Greener Grid Park. This project, located in East Yorkshire, will store energy generated at Statkraft’s nearby 49.9MW Soay Solar Farm project and is expected to come online in autumn 2025.
Statkraft has been becoming increasingly involved in the flexibility and stability markets in the UK. Last month, distribution network operator (DNO) SP Energy Networks announced that Statkraft’s 49MW Rheidol hydropower scheme was instrumental in keeping the electricity supply running during maintenance work on the grid. SP Energy Networks paid Statkraft an availability fee for each day the hydropower plant was on standby, with an additional fee paid if the plant needed to be used. This helped ensure that disruption on the network remained minimal.
Eluned Morgan MS, First Minister of Wales, said: “Wales’ electricity needs could treble by 2050, so it’s important that infrastructure like Statkraft’s Greener Grid Park in Swansea is in place to support the grid and ensure it can cope with the increasing demand in the most efficient and environmentally friendly way. Schemes like this are important in ensuring we’re ready to continue the transition to more renewable energy, delivering on one of my priorities for green growth.”
Richard Mardon, Statkraft’s head of UK development, added: “Swansea Greener Grid Park is a stand-out example of how Wales can serve as a beacon of green energy innovation, delivering home-grown solutions that benefit Welsh communities whilst bolstering the nation’s wider energy security.”
