EDF to Optimise UK Battery Crew

EDF has signed a long-term battery optimisation agreement with UK energy storage asset manager SWGT.

The partnership will see SWGT’s 30MW of utility-scale battery storage assets optimised across a variety of grid flexibility schemes, including EDF’s trading platform, Powershift.

The agreement will also provide income stability through the delivery of a ‘floor price’, ensuring minimum income levels are guaranteed.

EDF said the agreement provides SWGT and its investors with certainty that they will achieve an attractive return.

The company said the initiative supports the growth of renewable energy sources by providing up to 65 gigawatt-hours of annual energy import and export capacity to the National Grid during its phase one development.

The partnership brings the total amount of assets under optimisation by EDF to 255MW.

SWGT chief investment officer Olivia He said: “This project is testimony to the resilience of the energy transition fuelled by innovation and a strong appetite for renewable energy from investors.

“Phase one establishes a solid foundation for SWGT’s growth ambition and vision to become the preeminent UK renewable energy sponsor, supporting the integration of low-carbon power generation locally and worldwide.

“By bringing together the leading-edge expertise of our energy management partner, EDF, into a scalable, capital and risk efficient structure, we have created a launch pad for capital deployment into the decarbonisation, decentralisation and digitisation of the new energy market.”

EDF commercial lead Adam Clarke said: “We’re pleased that SWGT has chosen to partner with EDF on this project because of the level of expertise the EDF optimisation team have and also, our commercial scale as an organisation in the distributed energy asset management sector.

“We’ve been able to offer SWGT a long-term deal that not only creates an attractive revenue scheme but also provides bankable reassurance through the floor price, whilst also delivering on our ambition to help Britain achieve net zero.”