Optimisation of battery throughput means optimised revenues, Open Energi’s data science lead says
Batteries are now one of a “huge variety of distributed energy assets capable of providing flexible capacity to the network”, but failure to manage them correctly will limit the market opportunities available, as well as the lifetime of the systems themselves, the data science head of UK flexible energy tech company Open Energi has said.
In a blog published last week on our sister site Current± Open Energi’s Robyn Lucas explains how the “cost-benefit of every action performed by a battery energy storage system has to be weighed in terms of battery degradation and lifetime, whilst continuously managing the state of charge to ensure system availability.”
Both the throughput and cycling capabilities of batteries are essential metrics in modelling how they are to be used and what sort of revenues they can earn. As well as a more general look at the market dynamics and the technologies her own company uses to take on increasingly merchant-driven opportunities, Lucas’ blog takes a deep dive behind the workings of the grid-scale battery installed in North London at the stadium of professional football club Arsenal.
Thought to be the UK’s “first behind-the-meter battery to be aimed primarily at wholesale energy trading,” the fully-automated and optimised battery installation uses the battery to supply energy to the stadium facilities at the most expensive times of day.
“At the same time, the system is generating revenue – split between Arsenal, [developer] Pivot Power and investor, Downing LLP – from energy arbitrage and imbalance opportunities,” Lucas writes.
Read the full blog Throughput vs Revenues: Making the most of battery storage, at Current±, Solar Media’s energy transition news and analysis site.
Actual dispatch of battery according to day ahead schedule, with intra-day update due to a Triad (peak event) call, where the price for one of the Triads is shown on a logarithmic axis. The actual Triad won’t be known until after the season. Image: Open Energi
Pivot Power unveils the 2MW system at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, London. Image: Pivot Power.