The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has come under fire from the Renewable Energy Association (REA) for a lacklustre policy in relation to renewable battery power.
The government reform announced today concerning its decision to revise the Capacity Market has caused frustration within the REA.
The revision could lead to a change in government policy with would undercut the ‘amount of innovative new battery storage capacity that will be able to compete in the auction.’
Frank Gordon, Policy Manager at the Renewable Energy Association said:
“The Capacity Market is an ever more crucial mechanism for delivering battery projects, which underpin the additional electricity system flexibility that is so urgently needed in the UK.
“The changes unveiled today are slightly less drastic than those first proposed but could make it harder for a number of battery storage projects to compete. Storage projects over four hours duration, such as flow batteries that can hold power for longer lengths, will see no change from the decision.
“One cannot forget that this is one of many recent changes that are undermining the growth of this sector. Recent revisions to “embedded generation” payments slashed the support that small-scale, distributed generation receives and there could be more pain for the sector in future grid payments reform.
“Considering the Government research and development funding going towards batteries at the moment and the drive to encourage future battery manufacturing it seems strange to undermine the development of a battery storage market.
“The timing of these changes is our main criticism however. As they are being applied in the midst of an on-going auction process it akin to changing the rules of a football match at half-time.”
