Dive Brief:
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The U.K. government and the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), the country’s energy regulator, on Monday announced plans to upgrade the U.K.’s energy system and invest $320 million (£246 million) in battery storage over a 4-year span.
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The plan includes several measures to ease the approval and development of battery storage devices, including addressing cost recovery with some generators and simplifying the planning and grid connection process.
- Ofgem said it plans to consult in the coming months on a proposed modified generation license for battery storage, which could remove consumption charges that now can result in double charging for storage devices.
Dive Insight:
The system upgrade announced by the U.K. government and Ofgem includes investments in battery storage and electric vehicles. Among the program's aims is to make the country’s energy sector more interactive in order to give homes and businesses more control over their energy use.
The U.K. sources 25% of its power from renewable energy. As the country continues to invest in renewables, government officials raised the need to invest in storage and other resources to upgrade its grid system, culminating in the significant storage investment dubbed as the Faraday Challenge. The storage investment is divided into four phases over a four-year span and designed to deal with the costs to integrate renewable energy as well as its generating fluctuations.
Roughly $59 million (£45 million) will go towards a competition to make battery storage accessible. And $33 million (£25 million) will go toward research and development of autonomous and driverless vehicles, which are likely to represent a growing percentage of electric vehicles, PV Magazine says.
The upgrade announced by the U.K. government and Ofgem coincided with the publication of Upgrading Our Energy System: Smart Systems and Flexibility Plan, which outlines measures that have the potential to save consumers as much as $52 billion in energy costs by 2050, the government says.