A selection of the residents of the Yorkshire village of Oxspring are taking part in a battery trial. Some residents with solar panels are being given the batteries and other residents without solar panels are also being given the same battery systems. Their use of the systems will be compared. The trial is too find out whether those with solar panels van be persuaded to store the extra power they generate, rather than sell it to the grid.
This battery trial is highlighting a number of problems due to solars’ high UK grid penetration. Firstly, local grid problems due to the shear number of PV systems on the grid locally. Apparently this village is banned from having any more PV systems installed. Storing some power would help mitigate this problem. The second problem is that of huge amounts of solar power going onto the grid nationally at midday in the summer months. If this power could be stored for night time use this would help this problem of electricity that no knows what to do with.
As this blog has written before the use of battery storage at the residential level will not make managing the grid any easier without the use of smart-meters. National Grid and the big two in Scotland will simply not going where the power is going.
What is interesting is that all the battery companies operating in the UK say that this technology is quietly taking off with at least 1000 systems installed and 2017 they predict sales will soar. If such systems become commonplace then central power demand in the summer months both day and will plummet.