The Energy Storage Report 2024

Now available to download, covering deployments, technology, policy and finance in the energy storage market

Harder now to make business case to developers for batteries at EV charging stations in UK

LinkedIn
Twitter
Reddit
Facebook
Email

The business case for developers to use large batteries at EV charging stations instead of upgrading electricity networks in the UK is now harder to make after recent changes in regulations.

Panellists discussed the topic in the ‘Batteries Vs. Grid Upgrades – When Is Installing A Battery The Cheaper Option To Support Deploying Chargers?’ session yesterday (5 October) at the EV World Congress, a two-day event put on by Energy-Storage.news’ parent company Solar Media.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Enjoy 12 months of exclusive analysis

  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Annual digital subscription to the PV Tech Power journal
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

“From next April, developers won’t be paying for those grid upgrades, it will be the DNOs (Distribution Network Operators) so that price signal has disappeared. So right now, it’s hard to make a case for stationary batteries to reduce costs for the developers,” said Simon Gallagher, managing director of eSmart Networks, which provides EV charging infrastructure installations and renewable energy connection solutions.

Paul Jewell, system development manager at DNO Western Power, agreed but said there were still some opportunities for battery energy storage systems. This could be for Western Power’s own process of upgrading its infrastructure to accommodate new EV charging capacity, or as a short-term solution for developers waiting for the infrastructure upgrade they need to be completed.

As Energy-Storage.news has extensively written, BESS units are increasingly being deployed at EV charging stations in cases where the local grid cannot provide the high-power connection the chargers need, or as a more economic alternative to upgrading the power lines.

EV charging parks can also use on-site batteries to optimise the EV charging station’s consumption, both in terms of the price/kWh and renewable energy mix.

Grazia Todeschini, reader in engineering, Kings College London, pointed out that 22TWh of energy will be needed by 2030 needed to charge the anticipated number of EVs on the road in the UK.

The original version of this story first appeared in Current±’s rolling coverage of day one of the EV World Congress.

Read Next

March 28, 2024
The mayor of a town in Germany has allocated land at a former nuclear power plant site for a 120MW/280MWh BESS, after the government rejected plans to use it for storing nuclear waste.
March 27, 2024
The energy storage arm of EV supercar technology firm Rimac has opened its UK innovation and manufacturing facility, where it will build the first units of its SineStack BESS platform.
March 26, 2024
UK-based energy company Statera Energy has secured planning consent for a 290MW/1,740MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) to be developed in Southwest England.
March 22, 2024
Harmony Energy and Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV) have energised a 99MW/198MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Essex.
March 20, 2024
This UK edition of news in brief features project news from RWE, Quinbrook, E.On, TagEnergy and Harmony Energy.

Most Popular

Email Newsletter