Battery powers up at Northumberland wind farm

Vattenfall has installed a 20MW, 2-hour Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) next to its 16 turbine Ray Wind Farm near Otterburn in NE England. The wind farm has been operating for over 6 years and produces around 10% of Northumberland’s energy needs. 

Owned and operated by Vattenfall, Battery@Ray will help to keep the electricity grid stable by helping to match electricity supply with demand. It also increases the security of our energy supplies, by enabling more home-grown, renewable power to be generated and stored. One charge from Battery@Ray could meet the electricity demand of 3,500 UK households for 24 hours.

BESS compliment the move to increase generation from renewables, away from traditional fossil fuel power stations. They do this by playing a fundamental role in balancing renewable energy supply and electricity demand, reducing the downtime of wind farms and other renewable technologies, increasing production, and potentially reducing costs. At times of peak wind power production, where supply may not match the demand, excess electricity can be stored and then released from the BESS back into the grid when customers need the power most.

Co-locating the battery at Ray Wind Farm also enables the production of electricity to be more cost effective by sharing infrastructure, such as the roads around the site and the electricity grid connection.

Ross Williams, Project Manager at Vattenfall, said: “Battery projects were in their infancy when Ray Wind Farm first started generating fossil-fuel free energy. Since then, battery technology has advanced, and I’m delighted that Battery@Ray is now energised and helping towards our ambition of fossil-free living. Ray is a great example of how we can unlock the environmental and economic benefits of renewable energy. Local and regional solutions for storing and using electricity, are becoming increasingly important, as the UK moves to net zero and our electricity requirements increase. Projects like Battery@Ray are the missing piece of the jigsaw, providing a solution here and now.”

Find out more about Ray Wind Farm here.