Northumbrian Water to pilot battery storage system using recovered car batteries

Northumbrian Water (NWL) will pilot large-scale battery storage using batteries recovered from Renault vehicles, the company has announced.

NWL has teamed up with Argonaut Power for the project, which will use ‘second life’ li-ion units recovered from the vehicles, with energy storage engineers Connected Energy providing the technology.

The three companies will work together to develop the projects, with Argonaut fully funding the investment costs and managing the systems for NWL.

They will be installed at a number of the utility’s sites across the North East, Essex and Suffolk.

Anthony Browne, energy development manager at Northumbrian Water, said: ‘Large-scale battery storage is going to be a major feature of the electricity industry going forward and this is a great opportunity for us to develop our understanding of these processes.

‘We expect that having batteries on site can also help us obtain more value from any renewable energy we generate on our sites.

‘The bespoke solution was based on addressing the various elements of NWL’s strategy, such as local content, innovation, sustainability and consumers value, and we were certainly impressed by Argonaut’s ability to deliver results in line with our expectations.’

Connected Energy CEO, Matthew Lumsden, added: ‘It’s great to be working with Argonaut and NWL on this opportunity.  This project has been built with innovation and sustainability in its DNA, from our second life battery energy storage systems through to the new operating and financing models.

‘We’re very proud to be involved in a project that will demonstrate how companies installing BtM energy storage can generate new revenue streams while simultaneously bolstering their sustainability credentials.’

An installation and revenue sharing contract is expected to be signed by the end of the year with the batteries in full operation by the autumn of 2019.

In April, NWL announced that all of their 1,858 sites will be run using power generated from renewable electricity after signing a deal worth more than £100m with Danish energy supplier Orsted.