UK investment management group Downing LLP has announced its first utility-scale battery storage site in the country, a 50MW/53MWh project in Nursling, Southampton on England’s southern coast.

The benefits – and remaining challenges – of the UK’s new frequency response service Dynamic Containment (DC) were discussed at today’s Energy Storage Summit by a panel of experts and industry stakeholders.

Bigger projects, increased synergy with renewable energy generation, better evolved business models and a forward-thinking market design have contributed to the success of battery storage in the UK, with neighbouring Ireland also showing strong signs of rapid growth.

Colocating battery energy storage systems alongside renewables projects will be ‘critical’ to energy networks in the future, and could help level up debt financing.

Smart energy infrastructure company SMS has begun construction on its first battery energy storage project in the UK.

Battery storage was called into action in Britain after a newly-inaugurated interconnector with France tripped.

Key to the rapid success and growth of the energy storage industry in the US, China and other maturing markets has been the presence of a small number of system integrators. IHS Markit association director Julian Jansen examines what it is that system integrators do that makes them so vital to the industry and why the future ahead looks to be one characterised by growth, competition and consolidation.

News in brief from around the world in energy storage: this edition has a distinctly British flavour.

National Grid ESO, the electricity system operator tasked with keeping the lights on in the UK, is looking to enable multiple application stacking for providers of a new frequency response service that also participate in the national Balancing Mechanism.