Statkraft, Europe’s largest generator of renewable energy, has signed its first supplier contract for the Lister Drive Greener Grid Park in Liverpool, to be constructed this year.
The Lister Drive Greener Grid Park will help to decarbonise the UK’s energy sector by allowing the grid to better adopt renewable energy and provide a low emissions alternative to regulation
through traditional generators.
At present, renewable energy supply is not always used when it could be – solar, wind and interconnectors supply energy but not enough of the services needed by the grid to stably move that energy to consumers.
The Lister Drive project will help solve this problem by providing services to help keep the electricity system stable, including inertia, short circuit current and voltage control.
ABB will engineer and install two Synchronous Condensers on the site. This is a new use for the technology, which has historically been used to maintain voltage on long transmission lines. Working closely with Statkraft, ABB’s UK team will support the site with a ten-year service
contract.
The site at Lister Drive will be one of the first sites to use this technology to stabilise the supply of renewable energy to the grid in the UK, joining Australia and Canada. ABB’s Synchronous Condensers will provide a neutral emissions alternative to stability services from traditional
thermal plant generators.
The deal comes at a critical time for the UK energy sector as it adapts to a “new normal”, with the country’s energy mix experiencing huge growth in renewable generation. National Grid ESO (NGESO) data shows that 2020 was a record-breaking year for clean energy, as the UK
achieved a total of 5,147 hours of coal-free energy supply and reached new records in wind and solar power.
As Europe’s largest provider of renewable energy, Statkraft is at the forefront of this change and is delivering new, innovative projects that provide inertia (stability) to the grid. Statkraft was awarded four stability contracts by National Grid ESO in January 2020 for two projects on Lister Drive, Liverpool and two in Keith, Scotland. Keith is on target to support the supply of renewable energy into the grid by the end of 2021.