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NETWORK / 10 / MARCH 2019 INDUSTRY INTERVIEW The battery storage visionary Matt Allen, founder and CEO of Pivot Power, speaks to Denise Chevin about his bold ambition to revolutionise electricity storage and facilitate the take up of electric vehicles (EVs). H ow do we ramp up renewables while provid- ing adequate storage to cope with intermittent generation? Step forward Matt Allen – one of a new breed of energy entrepreneurs looking to shake up the sector. Allen is the founder of Pivot Power, and has an ambitious strategy to provide battery storage at grid scale. He has a £1.6 billion plan that will build battery storage the size of half a football pitch on 45 sites around the country. Energy from the 50MW batteries – each large enough to power 10,000 homes - will also be used to provide super-fast electric vehicle charg - ing stations or charging hubs for electric bus depots or car fleets. With a total capacity of more than 2GW, it will be the world's largest network of batteries, the network will be able to store roughly two thirds the energy of the planned Hinkley C nuclear power plant. Allen says his motivation is one of tackling climate change - future-proofing the UK's energy system and ac - celerating the uptake of electric vehicles and in doing so helping to clean up air quality. Allen's latest venture comes aŽer a spell providing a behind- the-meter approach to storage, with a company called Become Energy. This has just completed a battery storage installation at the Emirates Stadium, but has been subsumed into Pivot Power which bought it for a pound. "Pivot Power is a 'before the meter' approach on transmis - sion scale, which is our USP," says Allen. "It is visible in the control room of National Grid and allows them to address the frequency challenges and bal - ance supply and demand." The idea to launch Pivot Pow- er came about 18 months ago. "It came to us when we began to ask why the EV charging side of the business had not rolled out as fast as was needed? Where were people going to charge? And would it be fast or slow charging? "It was so clear to us there was a gap to be filled – so we approached National Grid with the concept." Uniquely, the storage will be built on National Grid-owned sites located close to towns and major roads and will be fed directly by the high-voltage Matt Allen: "It was so clear to us there was a gap to be filled – so we approached National Grid with the concept."