Battery to help tackle energy storage challenges

The UK’s biggest large-scale lithium titanate battery is to be connected to the grid later this year, as part of new research to tackle the challenges of industrial-scale energy storage.

The project, led by the University of Sheffield, aims to test the technological and economic challenges of using large-scale batteries to provide support to the grid.

The 2MW battery will form part of a new 11kV Grid Connected Energy Storage Research Demonstrator based at the Willenhall primary substation, near Wolverhampton, West Midlands, which is part of the Western Power Distribution’s network. The demonstrator, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, is due to open in October 2014, will also test the viability of used electric vehicle battery packs for domestic or industrial electricity storage.

There is increasing interest from energy generators worldwide in installing large scale batteries, mainly for storing excess electricity from renewable sources. However, their high capital costs and uncertainties over how they might work commercially has meant uptake of the technology is still low.

The research team believe that batteries could provide a cheap and easily automated way to store excess energy from the grid and respond quickly in times of high demand.

Professor Dave Stone from the University of Sheffield’s Faculty of Engineering said: “Large scale batteries could reduce the need to keep energy generators on standby to respond to peaks in demand, but it’s as yet unclear how this might be best managed commercially. Because this is a dedicated research facility, we’ll be able to explore the advantages of grid connected energy storage in a real operating environment, but without commercial constraints. We’ll be able to openly assess the impacts of the technology on our energy infrastructure, which should ensure faster adoption by the sector, to help improve how the grid functions and its overall stability.”

The lithium titanate battery – supplied by Toshiba – was chosen because it is faster to charge, longer lasting and much safer than its common alternative, lithium ion, particularly in terms of reduced fire risk. It will be the largest battery of its type installed in the UK.