Storage industry must get better at utilising data

• Interpreting large amounts of data, and acting on it quickly, is challenging, say storage industry leaders
• Data should be used to ‘properly monitor’ the performance, and ‘state of health’, of battery assets
• Meanwhile, exposure to data centres and energy storage now makes sense for most infrastructure investors
• Storage ‘at heart’ of energy transition, according to Ofgem’s Mark Horley, and more needs to be invested in long-duration storage

The energy storage industry is rapidly professionalising, but much more can be done to better utilise data to improve the performance of battery energy storage assets. Richard Whitmore, asset management director at Adaptogen Capital, has said that while, the storage industry is growing rapidly, its evolution is bringing “capability and resourcing risks”. However, speaking at the recent Battery Asset Management Summit UK & Ireland in London, Whitmore added that the battery storage industry was beginning to professionalise in a manner reminiscent of the process that the onshore and offshore wind industries underwent. That said, Whitmore highlighted the need to capture data on battery storage assets so performance could be properly monitored. “We need to understand asset integrity,” he commented. “We need to understand state of health of the asset – offshore wind got good at this – there are a lot of data points we have to collect.”

Peter Davison, head of technical delivery at Ecolibrium, said that there were a lot of challenges when it came to utilising data in the battery storage sector. He added that the industry was continuously learning more about how to best use data and, as an optimiser, Ecolibrium’s priority was making sure it is “keeping assets online as much as possible”. Whitmore added that, while there was no shortage of battery asset data available, interpreting such large amounts, and quickly acting on it, was challenging. Another challenge, according to Whitmore, was the ever-evolving revenue landscape, and more specifically forecasting where assets are “going to be delivering services in 15 to 20 years”. Olta Cibuku, senior asset manager at Sosteneo Infrastructure Partners, said that data capture was already delivering significant benefits for the battery storage industry, but, in contrast, building up the capability of teams “on the ground” would take more time.

Storage is key to UK becoming clean energy ‘superpower’

Chris Elder, chief executive officer at Fidra Energy, said exposure to data centres and energy storage now made sense for most infrastructure investors. He added that the scale of growth in the industry was “hugely exciting” and that there was significant demand for storage in the UK, Germany and Italy, in particular. Cibuku added that the storage sector was “now at an inflexion point” and that regulators were now waking up to the fact that storage was “not just another renewable energy asset”, but actually the “enabler” of the energy transition. This view was echoed by Mark Horley, senior policy manager at Ofgem, who said energy storage is at the heart of energy transition: “Electricity storage is essential, it’s critical to unlocking the full potential of renewable energy and wind, in particular.” He added that if the UK was serious about being a clean energy superpower, it needs to be “serious about storage”.

However, despite the key role storage must play in the UK energy transition, Horley said there had been a lack of investment in long-duration energy storage (LDES). He added that the UK’s LDES cap-and-floor scheme would be a fast-track process and “the quickest thing OFGEM has ever done”. Horley said what was now needed was developers to “bring forward credible [LDES] projects and investors to back them”. He also said that the scheme was technology-neutral and that proposed projects would be assessed against economic, strategic and financial criteria.

Improving the management of energy storage projects was an ongoing focus, Elder said. He added: “You have to be clear about the division of responsibilities, what does the developer, supplier and optimiser do?” Elder said cannibalisation was a risk form an investment perspective, “but you have to believe in demand growth – history says there will be cycles, you have to be prepared to invest over the long-term.”