BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov.25
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Lightsource BP, one of the global leaders in the funding, development and long-term operation of solar projects, has become the first company in the UK to provide a reactive power service from a solar plant at night, Trend reports citing BP.
“Reactive power is the ability to maintain voltage levels on electricity transmission systems. This allows more energy to be transported down existing infrastructure and therefore increases capacity without the need for infrastructure upgrades. Inverters within a solar plant are able to provide reactive power by reducing or increasing voltage levels. They can deliver the voltage change necessary at a grid supply point, which is managed by National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO),” reads a message published on BP’s website.
National Grid ESO confirmed that this is the first night-time grid support service from a solar asset in the UK.
The trial follows three years of testing and development and forms part of the joint National Grid ESO and UK Power Networks ‘Power Potential’ project, which aims to create a new reactive power market for distributed energy resources (DERs) in the South East. Lightsource BP worked with UK Power Networks and National Grid ESO on Power Potential to deliver this important milestone in an initiative which has the potential to save UK energy customers over £400m by 2050 and provide up to an additional 4 GW of power capacity in the South East region of the UK.
Lightsource BP is an independent, global leader in the development, funding and long-term management of utility-scale solar PV projects with over $3.4 billion of project financing raised and deployed across more than 2GW of solar projects globally.
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