EDF-owned UK battery storage developer-investor Pivot Power has started work on a 50MW/100MWh battery storage facility as part of its second Energy Superhub project in the country.
The Superhub network is designed to deliver up to 2GW of transmission-connected battery storage and high-volume power connections across the UK.
This latest battery – located in Sandwell, northwest of Birmingham, England – is to be connected to the transmission network at National Grid’s Bustlehome substation, helping to integrate more renewable energy and increase the resiliency of the electricity system by automatically charging and discharging to balance supply and demand and manage intermittency.
The Sandwell battery energy storage system (BESS) will also enable mass-scale, rapid electric vehicle (EV) charging, with Pivot Power aiming to install a private-wire network once work has been completed on the battery.
Another similar site in Coventry is due to begin construction in early 2022 and both projects are to replicate core elements of the Energy Superhub Oxford project, which combines a 50MW hybrid battery (pairing a lithium-ion system with a smaller vanadium redox flow battery system) with what Pivot is claiming as Europe’s “most powerful” EV charging network, work on which began earlier this month.
The Oxford battery was activated earlier this year, as was a 50MW/50MWh BESS in Kemsley, Kent. Both systems are directly connected to National Grid’s high-voltage transmission networks and form part of Pivot Power’s plans to deploy up to 40 similar sites throughout the UK.
“The movement towards zero carbon energy is unstoppable and our technology provides the lynchpin to bring that to scale. Renewable energy and battery storage are complementary, interconnected and interdependent – we must have both to achieve net zero,” said Matt Allen, CEO of Pivot Power, said.
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