Danske Commodities has signed a three-year optimisation agreement for the 35MW Welkin Mill battery in Greater Manchester, England.
The deal marks the company’s biggest battery storage asset yet in the UK, where the energy trader will utilise its fully automated algorithmic setup to maximise returns across wholesale and ancillary services markets.
Under the agreement, Danske Commodities will provide market access, balancing and optimisation services for Welkin Mill, which will be operational this year.
The battery storage asset is owned by Equinor and is developed by Noriker Power Limited, a British developer and operator of battery storage assets, partly owned by Equinor (45% stake).
Once operational, Welkin Mill will have a capacity of 35MW/70 MWh and can store enough electricity to power over 100,000 UK homes for two hours.
“We are proud to announce Danske Commodities’ optimisation agreement for Welkin Mill. With more than 15 years of experience from British power markets, we will apply our trading expertise to optimise the battery storage asset and help provide much needed flexibility to intermittent power generation,” said vice president and head of European power trading at Danske Commodities Anders Kring.
“The UK is a core market for us, and we look forward to continuing growing our portfolio of renewables and flexible assets.”
Last year, Danske Commodities signed its first optimisation agreement in the UK for the 25MW battery storage asset Blandford Road, which is also owned by Equinor.
With now two UK battery storages in its portfolio, Danske Commodities is gearing up to support its owner Equinor’s strategic ambitions to create a profitable renewables business by integrating battery storage assets in its portfolio in select power markets.
Danske Commodities currently has a contract portfolio of 2000MW renewables assets in the UK, including a proportion of the offtake from the world’s biggest offshore wind farm, Dogger Bank.