Centrica, Sonnen bid domestic batteries into UK frequency market

London — UK utility Centrica and Shell-owned solar/battery vendor Sonnen have installed 100 domestic batteries in Cornwall that are now being bid into the UK's frequency response market, Centrica said Tuesday.

The network of aggregated home batteries are the first in the UK to be approved by National Grid to provide Dynamic Firm Frequency Response, selling storage when the grid is overloaded or providing stored energy during periods of peak demand.

"In the past automated Demand Response was the domain of large industrial and commercial energy users, but in the last 12 months we have shown that networks of devices such as home batteries and hot water tanks can also take part," said Centrica's global optimization director Pieter-Jan Mermans.

As co-founder of Belgian start-up REstore NV, Mermans along with partner Jan-Willem Rombouts established the cloud-based Flexpond demand response platform. The platform had 1.7 GW of European capacity under management when Centrica bought the company in November 2017.

Now Centrica has some 2.5 GW of VVP capacity under management in Europe, the US and Asia.

Last year Centrica and Sonnen completed installation of 100 home batteries and 46 solar PV units in Cornwall as part of a Local Energy Market trial.

The aggregated assets form a 585 kWh block of flexible capacity. The project was supported by the EU's Regional Development Fund.

The collaboration "demonstrates how networks of home batteries can work hand in hand with large scale batteries and other flexible industrial equipment," Centrica said.

In September last year Centrica Business Solutions said it had adapted its software platform to include residential devices such as smart electric hot water tanks.

The companies would look at how the project could be replicated at greater scale in the UK and other territories, Centrica said.