Smart energy infrastructure business SMS announced it now has a combined 90MW of battery energy storage systems (BESS) in operation in Ipswich and Barnsley.
The BESS projects are delivering energy to help balance the grid and provide additional flexibility services.
The 50MW project located at Brook Farm, near Ipswich, and the 40MW site in Stairfoot, Barnsley, are both lithium-ion batteries, SMS said, and are the second and third sites the firm has developed following the completion of its inaugural 50MW BESS project in Cambridgeshire.
Prior to the development of the BESS assets, SMS entered the virtual power plant (VPP) space with the acquisition of battery storage, microgeneration and electric vehicle charger start-up Solo Energy in 2020. It then launched a solution offering local housing authorities a fully financed solar generation and smart battery storage solution, dubbed Solopower, in 2021.
The Ipswich and Cambridgeshire projects take SMS’ total operational capacity to 140MW across three live projects. The company will continue to expand its portfolio having already secured planning for a further 200MW of energy storage sites. This will thus see 760MW delivered over the next five years.
“Alongside decarbonisation, energy security is one of the key challenges facing the UK’s transition to a net zero economy, and battery storage is a linchpin technology on both of these critical fronts,” said John Flaherty, managing director of grid-scale energy storage at SMS.