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NETWORK / 23 / NOVEMBER 2018 the potential to be scaled up by hundreds of megawatts in the UK. The role of batteries But it is batteries that are playing the most crucial role in the development of the en- ergy storage industry in Britain. British So- lar Renewables completed the construction of one of the UK's largest battery storage facilities just under a year ago in a 50MW project located near Bishop's Stortford. Meanwhile UK Power Networks completed a trial of what is billed as "the largest grid scale battery in Britain" at Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire in 2016. The 6MW/10MWh battery, the size of three tennis courts, can store enough electricity to power 6,000 homes for an hour-and-a-half. Battery technology is developing rapidly. Lithium-ion batteries have benefited from being co-developed alongside the electric vehicle supply chain and have an important role in shorter-term and rapid-response storage, says the REA. Other batteries being deployed include flow batteries for medium- scale storage, copper-zinc batteries and lithium titanate chemistry batteries. There are also new applications emerg - ing in which batteries are combined with DSR services. For example, Kiwi Power, one of the leading DSR service providers in the UK, announced in the summer that Plessey, a Plymouth-based manufacturer of optoelectronic technologies and solid-state lighting products, had begun operating a 2MW behind-the-meter battery storage facil - ity at its headquarters. The project is the third Kiwi Power project to employ battery storage, with a 2MW Tesla battery used at Plessey. The battery power will earn revenue by fulfilling a frequency response balanc - ing contract with National Grid and help to reduce energy costs for Plessey by providing optimal peak-shaving of power supply in response to fluctuations in demand. Stephan Marty, general manager for energy storage and international demand at the company, explains Kiwi Power was involved in monetising the giant battery system developed by UK Power Networks at Leighton Buzzard. "A battery is just another asset that we can put into markets we are al - ready very familiar with," he says. "It makes perfect sense for us to go into the battery market." Batteries managed by Kiwi Power run on the same so˜ware platform as its DSR services. The hardware is also the same. "There is more complexity in a battery, but in terms of how we control it, and how we make money in the markets, there is a close adjacency," Marty says. Energy storage al - lows a DSR company to be more flexible and react very quickly in reaction to demand. "You can go from full power in to full power out in less than a second with a battery. That allows you to play in some markets that are hard to play in with typical demand response," he explains. For example, a bat - tery installation might allow companies to provide fast frequency response on the grid instead of Short-Term Operating Reserve (STOR) requirements. There is a lot of interest in the industry in combining DSR services with battery stor - age, Marty says, although the business case must take in to account the capital invest- ment in the battery itself, he points out. There will always be a case for both battery energy storage and traditional demand side response services, he believes. "To balance, National Grid needs some very fast-acting technologies, but it also needs some back- up in terms of STOR and fast reserve – they need to be able to make sure that if some- thing goes wrong they have enough back-up capacity available." UK Power Networks' Leighton Buzzard battery installation. Frank Gordon, head of policy at the REA, says batteries are "definitely the market leader" in terms of storage technologies in the UK. Other technologies such as compressed and liquid air are just as valid, he says, although they may take longer to get off the ground on a commercial basis, he says. According to the REA, the battery stor - age sector has the potential to grow from 60MW in 2016 to up to 12GW by the end of 2021. Impressive growth, but these numbers will only be achieved "if the UK regulatory framework is speedily upgraded", the asso - ciation said in a report launched just under a year ago. The Smart Systems and Flexibility Plan has provided the right roadmap for the de- velopment of energy storage. Gordon says: "We think the Government's on track. Our message is now that the remaining items in the plan need to be achieved quickly." This includes the development of best practice standards on how to carry out energy storage projects, he concludes.