A decision by the UK government to largely exclude short-duration batteries from the national Capacity Market auction amounts to “changing the rules of a football match at half-time”, according to the Renewable Energy Association.
The government today said it would lower the de-rating factor in capacity market auctions for batteries with a minimum duration of under four hours.
Batteries with a 30 minute duration have had their de-rating factor cut as low as 17.89%, while batteries with a duration of at least four hours would still qualify for a 96.11% de-rating.
“The changes unveiled today are slightly less drastic than those first proposed but could make it harder for a number of battery storage projects to compete,” Renewable Energy Association policy manager Frank Gordon said.
“The timing of these changes is our main criticism, however. As they are being applied in the midst of an on-going auction process it is akin to changing the rules of a football match at half-time.”
UK Power Reserve, meanwhile, said it has registered more than 1GW of new battery storage and gas-fired generation projects ahead of next year’s national Capacity Market auction.
The company said it had successfully prequalified 100% of its existing and prospective portfolio, which includes around 400MW of new battery storage developments.
Image: Irena
REA slams UK storage ‘own goal’
Government ruling makes it 'harder' for some projects to compete
By EBS