National Grid awards £328 million contracts to manage grid stability

• 4 years ago (2020-01-30)
• David Flin

Europe 1068 Transmission 181

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The UK National Grid Electricity System Operator has awarded contracts valued at £328 million over six years to manage the stability of the electricity grid. Drax, Rassau Grid Services (Welsh Power), Statkraft, Triton, and Uniper will either build new or modify existing assets to provide stability services to National Grid ESO to help manage system properties such as inertia, voltage, and short circuit. National Grid ESO said that the key service to be provided is inertia, which helps to keep the system running at the right frequency.

This will allow more renewable energy generation to operate, helping reduce energy use and carbon emissions, and is expected to save consumers up to £128 million over six years.

The contracts involve developing 12.5GVA seconds of inertia – the equivalent of the inertia provided by around five coal-fired power stations.

Julian Leslie, Head of Networks at National Grid ESO, said: “This approach is the first of its kind anywhere in the world, and is a huge step forward in our ambition to be able to operate the British electricity system carbon free by 2025.”