The greatest value aggregrators putting batteries and other assets in the UK’s electricity markets offer to their customers today is in providing access to the Balancing Mechanism (BM), through which the electricity system operator National Grid ESO matches supply and demand in real-time.

More news in brief from around the world in energy storage.

More than 60MWh of residential battery energy storage systems from sonnen will be used in a virtual power plant (VPP) project in California that will fit out solar-powered energy solutions for around 3,000 residential apartments.

“Intelligent energy platform” company Kaluza is claiming a UK first as it provides one of the country’s distribution network operators (DNOs) with flexibility from domestic batteries and transport solutions using one platform.

More electricity storage and longer durations will be needed for the UK to meet net zero, according to electricity system operator National Grid ESO’s latest modelling.

One of the first large-scale solar farms in Japan so far to be equipped with battery storage in order to meet the requirements of a local grid operator and utility, has been completed on the island of Hokkaido.

A key committee of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) has voted overwhelmingly to thrust energy storage into the heart of the continent’s decarbonisation agenda, while trade group EASE has urged the EU to raise its targets on 2030 emissions reduction.

Sunverge CEO Martin Milani talks about the system architectures and technologies that can make residential storage virtual power plants economically viable and useful to the local electricity network. As told to Andy Colthorpe.

Jan Andersson, market development manager at Wärtsilä, explores the need for large-scale energy storage solutions to aid the proliferation of electric vehicles and their necessary charging infrastructure.