[Power] "Next generation utility wins contract for UK's biggest battery"

May 24, 2017 33 Replies

"Demand response software start-up Limejump has won the contract to manage the energy storage facility dubbed 'Britain's biggest battery' by project developer UK Power Networks"



"Located in Leighton Buzzard, the 6 MW Network Storage Facility has been developed to help support the growing amount of intermittent renewable power sources on the grid"


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One can't help wondering how many of these battery banks are needed to actually make a significant contribution to the grid. 6MW, 10MWh, so

6MW for ~90 minutes supply before it's flat, as they point out. Assuming an average UK daily consumption of 35GW, i.e 840,000MWh, we'd need 84,000 of these battery banks to keep us going for a day, if we were relying entirely on wind and sunshine and TWDB&TSDS etc. I doubt it's realistic to think that wind and sun would ever be the only sources of supply, but it does suggest we'd need a helluvalot of batteries to be really useful.

Note 'manage' not 'build'. It's already been operating for years:

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Theo

Maybe its cheaper just to flood old mines and use turbines to generate power then pump them out when there is little demand. Is it any less efficient than a bleedin big battery which needs to then be converted to AC in any case?

Brian

Tim Streater explained on 24/05/2017 :

Water?

I would not think the water capacity of a disused mine would be enough to make it worth while.

ditto the world's biggest battery.

NT

Which you get from where? And when it comes to pumping it out, where does the water go?

Of course it isn't., But you are supposed to applaud the IDEA and the INTENTION. this isn't engineering, its virtue signalling politics FFS!

Cheap imported coal?

Lefties, Liberals and Terrorists. The decomposition gasses would fuel several cities.

I am not starting a 'theres a hole in my bucket thread here! Water dear Lisa.

Brian

Tim Streater brought next idea :

It would be pumped out to a lagoon, then allowed to flow back via the generators.

In article , Harry Bloomfield writes

A lagoon eh? And just how big would this lagoon be and where do you suggest it is located?

In article , Chris Hogg writes

Until there is a quantum leap forward in battery technology, which may actually be theoretically impossible, then this is a complete waste of time. Stop scratching the surface and build nukes before it is too late.

and waht do you fill it with? Yes, water - but from where?

bert was thinking very hard :

I was just explaining how it would have to work, I had already said it wasn't workable due to insufficient capacity to make it a worthwhile venture.

What lagoon is that, then? Located on which land? And how big would it have to be to be worth while? And how many properties would be drowned by your "lagoon"?

Been thought through, has it, this idea?

It was all discussed on this NG a couple of months ago

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200MW for 4 hours. Not spectacular, and smaller than any of the UK pumped storage schemes, but better than 10MWh for the battery storage discussed at the top of this thread, and assuming they overcome all the problems at an affordable price, neither of which is certain.

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