Equinor’s first commercial battery storage asset starts operating

Energy company Equinor has announced that its 25MW/ 50MWh Blandford Road battery storage project is now operational.

Blandford Road, Equinor’s first commercial battery storage asset to start operating, comprises about 150 lithium-ion battery units and can store enough electricity to power 75,000 UK homes for two hours.

The project is situated in Dorset in southwest UK and is connected to the Southern Electric Power Distribution (SEPD) network.

Alex Grant, UK Country Manager at Equinor commented on the announcement saying it’s “a significant milestone for our ambition to deliver flexible power and maintain security of supply in the UK.”

Blandford Road was developed and will be operated by the British firm Noriker Power, in which Equinor owns a 45% equity share.

Also, Equinor’s energy trading house Danske Commodities will provide market access, balancing and optimisation services.

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According to Olav Kolbeinstveit, senior vice president for onshore and markets within Renewables at Equinor, the company “envisages a renewables portfolio that combines generation assets such as wind and solar with flexible assets such as batteries to help mitigate the intermittency of the renewable power generation.”

“We have developed a distinct business model that integrates Equinor’s industrial perspective and financial capacity, Noriker’s local capabilities and know-how, and Danske Commodities’ power trading expertise. This business model allows us to quickly scale our battery storage portfolio in the UK and enhance value creation from power markets,” says Kolbeinstveit.

Kolbeinstveit stated that Equinor is also currently building the Welkin Mill battery storage project, which is expected to be operational in 2024. It will have a capacity of 35MW/70MWh and will be able to store enough electricity to power over 100,000 UK homes for two hours.

The UK Government is working to increase flexibility to support its decarbonisation efforts and anticipates that at least 30GW of low-carbon flexible assets, including energy storage, will be needed by 2030 to maintain energy security and cost-effectively integrate high levels of renewable generation.

Originally published on powerengineeringint.com