National Grid connects Richborough Energy Park battery to grid

Richborough Energy Park’s 100 MW/100 MWh battery will boost the capacity and flexibility of the network, helping balance the system by soaking up surplus clean electricity and discharging it back when the grid needs it – with a capability to power 250 000 homes for an hour.

The battery will also provide grid stability services, for example helping to manage voltage and frequency imbalances as renewable generation dips up and down. The facility is managed by Pacific Green under a long-term asset management agreement, and was Sosteneo’s first acquisition in the UK.

To ensure a safe connection, National Grid upgraded its Richborough substation to accommodate new switchgear and installed new protection and control systems on its supergrid transformer, plugging in the project via a tertiary connection – a complex but cost-effective connection type.

Richborough substation already hosts the connection for National Grid’s own 1 GW Nemo Link interconnector with Belgium, while Thanet offshore wind farm – the world’s biggest at the time of its launch – also connects into an adjacent substation on the wider Richborough Energy Park site.

The battery will help exploit the clean electricity potential of these and other renewable projects in the region, storing and releasing green energy to power homes and businesses and also helping to relieve any system constraints.

Stuart Jones, Portfolio Director for the Customer Connection South Region at National Grid Electricity Transmission, said: “Battery storage has a crucial role to play in delivering a net zero energy system in Britain, so connecting projects like Pacific Green’s at Richborough Energy Park to our transmission network marks key progress on our country’s clean energy journey.

“Given the Richborough site’s history, it’s apt that it’s becoming a pivotal part of our network for the energy transition, with our substation connecting clean electricity projects like batteries and interconnectors – all of which are helping Britain harness increasing volumes of renewable power into the future.”

Chris Twomey, COO and Head of Asset Management for Sosteneo, added: “We commend the work of Pacific Green and National Grid in bringing the Richborough Energy Park to life, helping establish our presence in the UK and representing an important milestone for our clients.”

Scott Poulter, Chairman and CEO of Pacific Green, commented: “It’s been a pleasure to work with the National Grid to develop Richborough Energy Park, and we look forward to continuing our relationship with many more projects to come.

“Having taken control of the site in 2021, I’m proud at the speed and efficiency with which my team has steered the project to financial close in summer 2022, first energisation a year later, full energisation last month, and now into commercial operation.”

The Richborough site embodies the energy transition from old to new, occupying land where a coal power station generated electricity from the early sixties through to 1996, and stood until its demolition in 2012.

The former coal plant, with its iconic hyperboloid cooling towers, played an important role powering Britain’s early supergrid, just as the new green technologies on site today will help deliver the country’s net zero ambitions. Richborough was also host to an experimental 1 MW wind turbine in the late eighties, which at the time was the UK’s largest.

National Grid started redeveloping the site following the demolition of the coal plant, building the converter station for Nemo Link where the plant’s cooling towers once stood.

The subsequent completion of the Richborough Connection project in 2021 plugged the subsea link into the electricity transmission network via the first major new power line to be constructed in Kent since 1961.

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