“The commissioning of Tynemouth is an important milestone for Enel since it is the Group’s first utility-scale, stand-alone battery energy storage system, showing the potential of this promising solution in addressing the challenges of the energy transition,” said Enrico Viale, Enel’s Head of Global Thermal Generation.
Tynemouth is providing grid-balancing services under a four-year Enhanced Frequency Response (EFR) contract with National Grid, awarded to the project in National Grid’s 2016 EFR tender. After these four years, the project will participate in ancillary services and capacity market tenders. Enel acquired the project last year by purchasing 100 percent of the shares in Tynemouth Energy Storage Limited from the European-based energy developer and operator Element Power. Energy company RES, based in the UK, acted as EPC contractor for the project and will support Enel in the operation and maintenance of Tynemouth BESS under a four-year contract.
The Tynemouth BESS project, which is remotely managed from Enel’s Global Thermal Generation monitoring room in Italy, represents an opportunity for Enel to gain experience and strategic knowledge in building and operating such projects as well as an attractive investment opportunity with a short time to market. The EFR contract that supports the project was one of the best remunerated among those awarded in the 2016 EFR pay-as-bid tender, with a price of around 12GBP/MWh.
