Flexible demand is critical to ensuring Scotland’s renewable energy potential is realised.
Scotland has some of the best renewable resources in the UK, both in terms of onshore and offshore wind. Harnessing these resources will be crucial in the UK meeting its Net Zero target, and becoming more energy secure. It is good to see policymakers, the regulator and the grid operator acknowledging that bold and significant grid investment is crucial to making these ambitions a reality.
As well as proposing connections for onshore wind capacity in northern Scotland to take the power south, the £58 billion worth of investments outlined in National Grid’s Electricity System Operator (ESO) Beyond 2030 report will support the UK in building the single largest offshore wind fleet in Europe by Scotland’s a 5GW potential.
ESO’s planning processes assume a 5GW increase in demand in Scotland by 2035. In the next decade the need for flexible demand will grow as the electricity mix becomes more renewables heavy and electricity demand increases, for vehicle and heating electrification as well as for power-hungry industries.
Beyond 2030’s analysis shows that locating an additional 5GW of flexible demand, ( a 9.3GW demand increase in total, in Scotland), behind transmission bottlenecks could save consumers £5 billion. This may avoid the need for some network reinforcements, such as additional subsea circuits (cables and associated infrastructure) from Scotland to England or Wales.
Apatura Energy welcomes the ambition contained within Beyond 2030. In Scotland, where we have secured 9.3GW of grid connections, battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity can be realised more quickly than other kinds of network upgrades and reinforcements.
The congested area on Great Britain’s electricity network around the border between Scotland and England is projected to worsen, without significant investment. In addition to proposals set out in Beyond 2030 to expand transmission capacity and build more circuits, BESS has a proven role in bringing flexibility to congested parts of the grid, ensuring that more renewable generation is able to flow into the grid. Around 5GW of Apatura’s capacity in Scotland will be built before 2030.
Strategic, flexible demand.
Strategic demand can be located and operated in a way that is beneficial for the operation of the electricity system or that can improve ESO’s design against its Holistic Network Design objectives. Flexible demand is any type of electrical demand that can respond at short notice in line with supporting the electricity system’s operation.
Combined strategic and flexible demand will help minimise overall network running costs by reducing the need the need to establish new north to south transfer capability in the electricity transmission system. BESS, electrolysers, even data centres or types of power-intensive manufacturing that can shift demand are all ways to bring more strategic, flexible demand to the grid.
Apatura has secured the connections to make these ambitions a reality. Some 6GW of Apatura’s projects pipeline will be delivered, with land and grid connections secured post-2030. As well as BESS, some of these sites could facilitate other kinds of energy transition projects, like electrolysers, capable of operating flexibly while also supplying the clean fuel needed to decarbonise Scottish industries, like distilleries and manufacturing as well as heavy transport/logistics.
