Shell signs multi-year offtake deal with 100 MW UK battery project

Shell Energy Europe Limited (SEEL) has agreed a multi-year power offtake deal with the 100 MW Minety battery storage project in Wiltshire, southwest England, Shell said Monday.

Two 50 MW projects, 10 km northwest of Swindon, are being backed by China Huaneng Group and Chinese sovereign wealth fund CNIC. Both are scheduled for completion by end-2020. Together the batteries can hold 100 MWh of electricity, enough to power 10,000 UK homes for a day.

"Projects like this will be vital for balancing the UK's electricity demand and supply as wind and solar power play bigger roles in powering our lives," said SEEL Vice President David Wells.

Shell subsidiary Limejump is to manage the assets. The company's virtual power platform has over 1 GW of flexible capacity pooling renewables, storage and demand response. It bids this capacity into the UK's balancing and wholesale power markets, seeking to capture scarcity prices when frequency or supply is volatile.

The company was called on 94 times by the National Grid during the week of Storm Ciara to February 9, with half-hourly system prices ranging between minus GBP65/MWh and plus GBP116/MWh.