Electrical storage offers one means to manage intermittent demand and intermittent generation on a distribution network within existing network constraints, principally thermal capacity.

UK Power Networks has previously explored with Durham University and ABB the benefits that storage can offer in managing intermittent generation. As a result, UK Power Networks purchased a Li-Ion storage device which was commissioned in April 2011.

This project will take the existing results from network simulations and validate them by running progressive experiments on the storage device itself, throughout a number of seasonal, load and generation output variations on the network.

Objectives

The objectives of this project are to:

• Perform validation of the storage device’s capabilities with respect to data sheet performance, when installed on a real network. Specifically, the efficiency of the device will be measured

• Demonstrate load-shifting within the limits of the device capability (200kWh, 1 hour discharge duration)

• Understand the extent to which these interventions could be scaled up to manage larger quantities of demand or generation

• Validate a number of existing use-cases which have been proposed and simulated, rank their usefulness and understand their relative value to the DNO and to an intermittent generator

• Understand the potential lifetime of the device

• Embed the learning into a design tool for network planners, and into dissemination material for the GB DNO community

• Propose next steps.

Equipment and commissioning costs have already been provisioned and are out-of-scope of this project.