UK first two-megawatt battery to be installed on the grid in Wolverhampton

SWM members Aston University and Wolverhampton City Council are part of the consortium behind the UK’s first two-megawatt lithium-titanate battery. This could solve the challenges of industrial-scale energy storage, part of the key to managing the generation and user demand from renewable and other energy sources. The giant battery will form part of a new 11kV Grid Connected Energy Storage Research Demonstrator based at the Willenhall primary substation, near Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, which is part of the Western Power Distribution’s network. The demonstrator, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, is due to open by the end of 2014. The facility will also test the viability of used electric vehicle battery packs for domestic or industrial electricity storage. Other partners include the Universities of Sheffield, Aston and Southampton, the Engineering and Physical Sciences research Council, TSB, the Department of Energy & Climate Chnage, G&P Batteries, Energy Cost Advisors, Renault, Tata Motors European Technical Centre, Toshiba, Western Power Distribution, ABB Group, Portastor, Sterling Power Utilities, Converter Technology and Alpha Construction. For more information visit the Guardian and University of Sheffield websites.