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NETWORK / 20 / JUNE 2016 W ith a call for evidence on the barriers to energy storage deployment due from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc), and National Grid to tender out 200MW of frequency response, 2016 is an exciting year for energy storage. But both of these significant milestones are yet to happen, and any meaningful impact from the imminent smart meter rollout is, arguably, years away. According to the old adage, there should be calm before the storm, but the energy storage market has repeatedly made headlines during May, taking significant leaps forward in terms of technological maturity and company growth. There has been record investment, new product launches, big name new entrants and new trials. The smart meter rollout is finally due to start this summer, opening the door to a wealth of smart home products and eventually half-hourly settlement and smart tariffs. This may all be some way off, but domestic storage company Powervault is already poised to enter that market with the launch of a second generation product compatible with smart tariffs. At the same time, the company has undertaken its latest round of crowdfunding investment. Uptake was overwhelming, and the company achieved its £750,000 target in just seven days. Powervault decided to capitalise on the support by extending the campaign by an extra two weeks, even though it had already attracted £1.2 million of investment. Joe Warren, the company's chief executive, told Network the confirmation from government that it intends to give Ofgem the powers to drive through the move to half-hourly settlement in 2017 has built confidence in the future domestic storage market. The announcement by major automotive manufacturer Nissan that it too is entering the domestic storage market with its Xstorage product is evidence of this confidence, Warren says. Nissan is also pushing forward another potentially significant but as yet unexplored area for energy storage with the launch of the first vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging trial in the UK. Nissan is working with grid technology company Enel to roll out 100 V2G charging units across the UK to let drivers of its EVs sell electricity back to the grid. The technology has been investigated in theory, but this will be the first practical trial. Looking ahead, the clamour from the energy storage market is set to increase. Decc set a timeframe of Spring for its call for evidence, and National Grid's enhanced frequency response tender should also be issued shortly. Not only that, UK Power Networks is also approaching the conclusion of its major storage project at Leighton Buzzard and will be publishing the business case for DNOs imminently. N Charged and ready to go Regulatory barriers to the deployment of energy storage are yet to be overcome, but manufacturers have not let that stop them from storming ahead. ENERGY STORAGE A Next month Network explores the opportunity of using electric vehicles for mobile energy storage