InnovateUK has awarded £1.5m in funding to UK liquid air energy storage (LAES) outfit Highview to develop a hybrid system able to comply with National Grid balancing services.
Supercapacitors and flywheels will be added to Highview’s 5MW/15MWh pre-commercial LAES demonstrator being commissioned at Viridor’s Pilsworth landfill gas plant in Bury.
The hybrid system will demonstrate LAES’ ability to respond to grid frequency events within one second and meet the requirements of National Grid’s Enhanced Frequency Response and Firm Frequency Response services.
The funding was awarded for ‘Frequency Response from a Liquid Air Energy Storage facility’ as part of InnovateUK’s ‘First of a Kind Deployment of Innovation’ competition.
The aim of the project is to test performance and economics of the system due to be operational by summer 2018.
Highview chief executive Gareth Brett said: “A hybrid LAES system provides the powerful combination of instant start and long duration storage and is an important step for Highview as it broadens the range of services which LAES can supply and will help enhance the economic case for its adoption.”
Image: 5MW liquid air energy storage system at Pilsbury (Highview)
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By EBS