Zenobē has announced that its 100MW battery in Capenhurst, Chester is live and delivering commercial reactive power services.
It says the battery, sited in the Mersey region, will reduce the reliance on local gas plants to provide reactive power services, supporting the development of renewables and helping to manage network capacity to maximise Scottish wind power flowing into the region.

The battery will mean gas plants will not need to run as frequently and fees will not have to be paid to curtail wind power when the network becomes congested. Zenobe says that over the first fifteen years of operation, the battery at Capenhurst will save around £58 million in curtailment costs that would have previously been passed on to consumers.
Zenobe says the battery is the largest in Europe directly connected to the transmission network and the first in the world to have a commercial contract to provide reactive power. It was commissioned in direct response to a National Grid Electricity System Operator (NGESO) Pathfinder which sought to find a cost-effective solution to the high-voltage issues seen in the Mersey region.
To keep voltage levels on the transmission network at safe limits, it is necessary to find methods to absorb or inject reactive power. Up until now, reactive power services in Merseyside have been provided by local fossil fuel power stations, like Fiddler’s Ferry, which have closed in the past few years.