Open Energi saw the charging ability of some of the battery assets under its control hampered by more than 80% when the assets encountered temperatures below -10°C.

Cold weather can slow charge or discharge of lithium-ion batteries but the company was the only one that reported problems during the recent “beast from the east” cold snap.

Open Energi said that employing diverse technologies to provide frequency-response services, which react differently to temperature, was “a sensible way to safeguard against this kind of unforeseen, weather-dependent fleet behaviour”.