Dive Brief:
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U.K. grid operator National Grid has announced the winning bidders in a solicitation that will yield 201 MW of energy storage installations, Greentech Media reports.
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National Grid received bids from 37 providers, mostly for battery installations, and accepted eight of the bids.
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National Grid will award four-year contracts to the winners: EDF Renewables, RES, E.ON, Vattenfall, Low Power, Element Power, and Belectric.
Dive Insight:
National Grid, which also is the parent company of utilities in Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island, issued the storage solicitation to encourage new technologies to support the “decarbonisation” of the energy industry by providing a fast response solution to system volatility.
National Grid was seeking the ability to better control frequency variations almost immediately. In the past the fastest frequency response was delivered in under 10 seconds, now new technologies can respond to the frequency variations in under one second.
National Grid says the faster response times will result in reduced costs of about 200 million pounds (about $262 million).
Large storage solicitations in the U.K. could become more common. Greentech points out the government expects the domestic storage market to reach $17 billion in 2020, and nearly $30 billion in 2030.
National Grid's U.S. businesses could see new storage opportunities soon as well. In early August, the Massachusetts legislature passed a bill that could make the state one of only three in the nation to have an energy storage mandate.