UK Power Reserve and Fluence to build 120MW battery storage fleet

UK Power Reserve has appointed energy storage specialist Fluence to build 120MW of new battery storage capacity across the UK in an expansion of the companies' existing partnership.

Fluence, which is owned by Siemens and AES, will be responsible for building out the massive battery portfolio, which was secured by UK Power Reserve in the 2016 Capacity Market auction and represents one of Europe's largest battery-based energy storage projects.

UK Power Reserve originally split the 120MW portfolio into two 60MW batches. Having previously awarded Fluence the contract to build the first 60MW wave, it confirmed today it has also chosen Fluence to build the remaining 60MW.

"By splitting our portfolio into two 60MW sets of projects, we've had the opportunity to fully assess the market and took a nimble approach to keep up with this rapidly evolving space," explained Sam Wither, head of UK Power Reserve. "Fluence and its Advancion technology again proved their worth throughout this highly competitive process."

The two companies announced today that they expect the full portfolio to be up and running by summer 2019, providing stability services and extra power capacity for the UK grid when required.