Tag: BESS

Why flexibility has become the UK’s shock absorber

7 August 2026

Opinion

This article has been republished with permission from Enlit World.

Will Gardiner, Drax CEO

Britain’s electricity system has never stood still. Over the past century it has continually reinvented itself to meet the needs of the country it serves.

The first major tasks of energy transformation in the twentieth century included mass electrification and cleaning up power generation – driven by the formation of the National Grid in 1926, the phase out of coal, and the growth of renewable energy.

Today, three major pressures have converged including the continued growth of renewable energy, which is bringing greater intermittency into the electricity system, electricity demand is rising sharply as more sectors electrify and the grid is coming under greater strain as new technologies and infrastructure connect to the network.

These are creating a new defining test: building system flexibility that can respond to more variable supply, volatile demand, and a strained grid. Flexibility is not a nice-to-have. It is the system’s shock absorber.

Essential flexibility

Flexibility operates on both the supply and demand sides of the energy equation, in the form of storage, generation (dispatchable and renewable), smart energy management, and shifting workloads.

Achieving this depends on a range of technologies – including transmission infrastructure, flexible generation assets, long-duration energy storage and battery energy storage systems (BESS), and asset optimisation platforms that help manage electricity demand and supply in real time – each playing an important role in supporting a more resilient grid.

No single technology provides the answer. Together, they help balance intermittent renewable generation, maintain system reliability, improve resilience during periods of high demand and reduce overall system costs.

As energy requirements continue to evolve, flexibility has become just as important as generation itself in ensuring the UK can deliver a secure, reliable and lower-carbon electricity system.

Beyond energy

Getting flexibility right delivers benefits that extend well beyond the energy sector.

Recent geopolitical events – from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to renewed tensions in the Middle East – have highlighted how quickly international energy markets can become volatile. Energy security and national security are becoming increasingly difficult to separate.

Greater domestic generation and increased system flexibility can help reduce that exposure, improve overall system efficiency, support more stable long-term energy costs, encourage investment and job creation, and strengthen the UK’s industrial competitiveness.

Most importantly, it creates the platform for broader economic modernisation. A flexible and resilient electricity system will help enable the technologies, industries and businesses that will drive the UK’s next chapter of growth.

Powering innovation

Any discussion about the future of the UK’s electricity system quickly turns to artificial intelligence. The UK Government forecasts that the country will need at least 6GW of AI-capable data centre capacity by 2030, which is roughly three times more than today’s capacity.

Data centres’ energy needs constantly fluctuate – sometimes by hundreds of megawatts per minute. As workloads surge, pause and restart, the challenge cannot be met by more power alone, but also needs to account for how that power is managed dynamically.

AI will undoubtedly play an important role in shaping future electricity demand patterns, but it is only one part of a much broader picture.

Reliable electricity underpins almost every area of modern innovation. We often think about breakthroughs in healthcare, advanced manufacturing or artificial intelligence as separate stories. The reality is they are not.

They all have one thing in common: they depend on a resilient, flexible electricity system. From more effective cancer treatments and AI-enabled medical imaging to increasingly automated factories and the data centres powering the digital economy, electricity is what makes those innovations possible.

I’ve always considered energy the silent partner behind economic growth. It may not always be the focus of public attention, but it is fundamental to enabling innovation across every sector. However, flexibility is what will decide whether that partner can keep up.

Without a system that can respond to changing patterns of demand, many of those ambitions simply cannot happen at the same speed, or they come at greater cost.

This changing reality has shaped our own thinking. We’ve been evolving from a predominantly single-technology business into a provider of system flexibility.

Defining test

Today, we’re investing across open cycle gas turbines (OCGTs), BESS and renewable generation. Our recommended offer for Bluefield Solar Income Fund has the potential to add approximately 900MW of solar and wind generation. Combined with our other flexible generation assets, our portfolio could exceed 3GW of power capacity if our offer is accepted.

For me, that’s not simply about growing our portfolio. It’s about ensuring we’re investing in the dynamic capabilities the UK will need to power progress. This is where Drax can play a different role not just producing power but helping the system respond when it matters most.

The UK’s electricity system has continually adapted to meet new challenges over the past century, and effectively managing rising demand, intermittency, and more complex patterns of supply and demand will be no different.

That is why the next phase of our energy transition relies not simply on generating more renewable power, but ensuring we have the flexible infrastructure required to use it effectively.

Global competition for battery storage

22 June 2026

Opinion

Britain is building batteries faster than any other part of its power system. Installed capacity has tripled in just three years. Batteries can now discharge more power than the entire nuclear fleet, a sign of how quickly the grid is changing. Since construction of Hinkley Point C began, Britain has installed nearly 7 GW of batteries. Hinkley Point’s 3.2 GW of reactors will not come online until at least 2030 (five years late), whereas new battery projects can be built in a matter of months.

Britain’s battery capacity has risen from 10 MW to nearly 7 GW, overtaking the headline capacity of the entire nuclear fleet in under a decade. The two technologies are not directly comparable, as batteries can only discharge for 1–4 hours before recharging, whereas nuclear reactors provide steady output around the clock.

Britain’s battery boom is impressive, but it must compete in a global race for investment. Storage is growing faster overseas as countries seek flexibility to absorb more wind and solar. Investors follow price signals, and battery revenues shift quickly with market regulations and price spreads. Battery revenues vary by one-quarter from year to year, so today’s hottest market can soon become crowded and less attractive.

Turkey shows how quickly the race can shift. It now has Europe’s largest pipeline of battery projects, beating Germany and Italy combined. This surge reflects a fast-growing power system turning to wind and solar to cut imports. Since 2022, new wind and solar projects have had to add battery capacity equal to their generation capacity.

Britain is taking the opposite approach: rather than mandating battery construction, the market decides how much to build. Tighter co-location or balancing requirements could make wind and solar more compatible with system operations, but could risk stalling investment. The Government is leaning towards market signals, with the Clean Flexibility Roadmap aiming to remove barriers and improve price signals for storage.

Energy storage helps Britain use more of the electricity it generates. Batteries respond to short-term swings in supply and demand within seconds, while pumped hydro provides large reservoirs to deliver electricity during longer periods of system stress. Together, they store surplus wind and solar to cut curtailment, and release it when demand peaks to smooth out prices.

To support the Clean Power targets, Britain must more than triple its current storage capacity by 2030. After building 5 GW of batteries in the last five years, Britain now has five years to build the next 20 GW. This will rely on investors remaining convinced this is Europe’s best place to build.

Read the full Q1 2026 Electric Insights report here.

Why investors are flocking to the energy powerhouse that is Scotland

8 June 2026

Opinion

This article first appeared in The Scotsman. 

The conversation about energy is often framed as a choice: security or affordability, climate ambition or economic growth, urgent action or long-term planning. But that is a false divide. Households, businesses and communities want a power system that is dependable, affordable, and capable of supporting a lower-carbon future.

That was reflected in the recent Scottish Parliament debate, “It’s Scotland’s Energy”, which underlined the growing importance of the subject to the country’s economic future, and increasingly its politics. The debate may have taken place in Holyrood, but the issues it raised matter for all the UK.

Scotland is exceptionally well placed to help solve the UK’s energy challenges. As Britain’s electricity system evolves, long-term investment is increasingly flowing to the places with the renewable resources, engineering capability and network infrastructure to support a more flexible power system. Scotland stands out on all three, and this is being recognised by investors.

Late last year,  ScottishPower announced plans to invest up to £12 billion to transform the grid, and SSE announced it was generating £3.4bn for Scotland’s economy as it delivers on its five-year investment plan.

Scotland’s strengths

Scotland has been central to Britain’s energy story for decades. With abundant renewable resources, a resilient and modern grid, and deep engineering expertise, Scotland has established itself as a true energy hub.

In 2025, Scotland generated record levels of renewable energy, while continuing to export surplus power to the rest of the UK. Its position as an energy powerhouse means it is also home to a highly skilled workforce with generational expertise.

Alongside the dedicated workforce, Scotland’s unique geography and heritage offer significant structural advantages. It’s home to some of Europe’s strongest offshore wind resources, with considerable opportunities for future development. It has long been at the heart of Britain’s hydroelectric industry and remains home to many of the UK’s most important, long-duration energy storage assets.

These technologies may not always attract the same attention as nuclear power or solar parks, but they will be essential to delivering a reliable, low-carbon power system.

Bringing greater stability to the National Grid

Generating renewable power is only one piece of the energy transition puzzle. As more wind and solar power comes online, and as transport, heating and industry continue to electrify, Britain’s electricity system will need to manage rising demand while balancing increasingly variable sources of generation.

Developing a reliable system under these conditions requires technologies capable of responding quickly and flexibly to today’s demands. This means long-duration storage technologies such as pumped-storage hydro and battery energy storage systems, or BESS, will play an even more central role in the transition.

These solutions allow the grid to respond more effectively to supply and demand fluctuations, while aiding long-term system stability. In fact, the National Energy System Operator has identified long-duration energy storage as a critical component of delivering a secure, decarbonised electricity system by 2035.

However, storage alone is not enough to solve the challenge. We also need significant investment in transmission infrastructure capable of moving renewable electricity. As Scotland’s capacity continues to expand, strengthening connections between the regions and nations is also important, lowering system costs and ensuring power can reach homes and businesses across the country.

Reducing exposure to shocks

Recent memory tells us we can’t take energy security for granted. The global gas crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exposed the vulnerabilities that can emerge when energy systems lack resilience. Even today, UK industrial electricity prices remain among the highest in Europe, creating challenges for competitiveness, manufacturing and investment.

Scotland has worked to create an environment that encourages sustained, long-term investment. Recently, the Scottish Government committed to invest up to £500 million over five years to support offshore wind infrastructure, manufacturing and supply chains. Additionally, the UK Government’s National Wealth Fund, Great British Energy and the Scottish National Investment Bank backed the development of the Pentland Floating Offshore Wind Farm, which could power up to 70,000 homes.

Last month, I saw first-hand how Scotland’s energy assets are supporting the whole of the UK. I visited colleagues at Drax’s Cruachan Power Station in Argyll, which this year celebrated its 60th anniversary, and where we are investing £80m in a refurbishment programme designed to increase generating capacity and strengthen the long-term role of pumped storage hydro in Britain’s electricity system.

At Glenlee in Dumfries and Galloway, which has been generating renewable power for almost 90 years, we  installed solar panels at our plant, making it the first of eight planned solar projects across our Scottish hydro assets. In the wider sector, projects such as Zenobē’s Coalburn battery storage facility demonstrate growing confidence in Scotland’s role as a centre for large-scale energy storage and grid innovation.

The value of investments like these extends far beyond the energy system itself. They support jobs, strengthen local supply chains and generate opportunities for communities. Scotland’s energy strength isn’t just beneath the seabed or in the wind, it’s in its people.

Too often, the energy debate is framed as a choice between competing priorities. In reality, energy security, affordability and decarbonisation depend on one another. Getting them right will help deliver a stronger economy and a more resilient future.

Our shared ambitions require continued support, but investment in the necessary infrastructure is already underway. This is particularly true in Scotland, which will have a pivotal role in helping Britain deliver that future.

The opportunity to strengthen Britain’s energy security, support economic growth and accelerate the transition to a lower-carbon power system is significant – and so is the responsibility to deliver it.