WPD has been working with Regen to develop an approach to model the growth and operation of storage. As part of this modelling work, we developed and issued a consultation paper, aiming to help us to validate some of the key assumptions we have made in this modelling approach. This consultation was issued on 15th May 2017, was open to responses for 6 weeks and closed on 21st June 2017. The results report can be found here.
In undertaking this consultation, WPD was seeking to understand:
- The potential scale of growth of energy storage within its distribution network
- The type of energy storage assets/projects that are likely to be deployed within its network and their business models
- The typical operating behaviour of storage assets, how they are likely to be used and their typical mode(s) of operation
We have had a good response to this consultation, receiving 27 submissions from a broad range of organisations from across the industry. These responses provided a breadth of feedback and useful insights around the growth, technology, technical specification and operation of energy storage assets. One striking result from the consultation was that 96% of respondents felt that storage would predominantly be connected on the distribution network, meaning that WPD (and other DNO’s) will need to adapt to meet the expected growth in storage capacity in the future.
WPD would therefore like to thank everyone who responded to this consultation, the information gathered has been used to inform our modelling of storage, our future network planning and has helped us further understand the growth and operation of storage technology in more detail.
The enclosed results report shares the original background, analysis and assumptions we have made around storage. It also outlines a summary of the response we have received, with anonymised results against each of the 20 questions from the consultation as an aggregated summary.
As a result of the feedback we have received through this consultation, the report concludes with an outline of some of the specific areas where we have adjusted our network modelling assumptions as well as some key principles that WPD wish to implement, to ensure the benefits of energy storage can be realised on its network.
Author: Ray Arrell
Contact: rarrell@regensw.co.uk