UK government cements energy storage’s role as generation asset

July 12, 2022
LinkedIn
Twitter
Reddit
Facebook
Email

The UK government has cemented the role of energy storage as a generation asset in last week’s landmark Energy Bill.

The Bill was passed last week (6 July) by energy minister Kwasi Kwarteng and is designed to boost the UK’s energy security in light of recent market volatility. It was covered in-depth by Energy-Storage.news’ sister site Current, which you can read here.

It includes 26 measures across three main areas: reforms to protect customers, leveraging private investment to develop domestic renewable generation, and ensuring the safety and resilience of the UK’s energy system.

The Bill is also looking to remove obstacles to battery energy storage and pumped hydro storage, by clarifying it as a distinct subset of electricity generation.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Enjoy 12 months of exclusive analysis

Not ready to commit yet?
  • 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

Given energy storage’s role as both a consumer and generator of electricity, regulation of it ran into headwinds initially. In 2020, UK regulator Ofgem made the decision to classify energy storage as a subset of generation, but at the time industry bodies like the Renewable Energy Association (REA) argued that this must be a “stopgap measure” until parliamentary time was found to enshrine this role. The introduction of the definition within the new Bill will now cement its role as generation.

Despite this lack of clarity on storage’s role in the energy sector, it has grown substantially in the UK in recent years as the expansion of the balancing markets have led to surging demand. As of May 2021, the pipeline of utility-scale battery storage projects stood at nearly 40GW.

Nonetheless, industry actors have long called for storage to be given its own distinct definition. When Ofgem was about to define it as a subset of generation in 2020, REA head of policy Frank Gordon said it needed a broader definition. Policy lead at think-tank ReGen Madeleine Greenhalgh said that giving it its own asset class could result in a framework that would allow the technology to flourish.

The German parliament recently passed law amendments giving energy storage its own legal definition, defining it as an asset where “the final use of electrical energy is postponed to a later point in time than when it was generated”.

A local academic echoed Greenhalgh’s comments regarding the UK market, telling Energy-Storage.news the move would help future regulation to be more friendly to the technology.

“With the new definition, regulations can be set up explicitly for energy storage to avoid these problems,” said Jan Figgener, head of Grid Integration and Storage System Analysis at ISEA RWTH Aachen University.

Additional reporting by Molly Lempriere, editor, Current.

Read Next

October 29, 2025
IPPs Greenvolt and European Energy have finalised financial deals for solar-plus-storage projects in Denmark and Latvia, while Olana and Energix have enlisted optimisers for BESS projects in Lithuania and Poland, respectively.
October 28, 2025
Singapore’s Jurong Island looks set to host a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant with integrated battery storage.
Premium
October 23, 2025
With the final deadline for this year’s California legislative session having passed, now is a good time to analyse the outcomes of several bills that were first introduced earlier this year pertaining to BESS.
October 23, 2025
Tetchi Capellan, a pioneer of solar PV in the Philippines, discusses the country’s crucial turning point in its adoption of energy storage.
October 22, 2025
South Australia has officially opened its inaugural Firm Energy Reliability Mechanism (FERM) tender round, seeking up to 700MW of long-duration energy storage (LDES) capacity to enhance grid reliability and support the state’s renewable energy transition.

Most Popular

Email Newsletter