Quick Reserve is coming and StartIQ™ is ready to meet the challenge

9 January 2024

Quick Reserve is coming and StartIQ™ is ready to meet the challenge

Share this article
Image

National Grid will soon be rolling out new grid reserve solutions and we have developed StartIQ™, our fast start eCompressor, to enable natural gas-fired combustion engine generators to be able to participate. Our CEO, Paul Dowman-Tucker, explains...

“It's fabulous to see that National Grid Electricity System Operator (NGESO) has released final details of its new Quick and Slow Reserve balancing services. Having been under consultation between NGESO and industry since October 2020, Quick Reserve is now proposed to be rolled out from August this year.”

These grid frequency management products provide NGESO with a solution to manage frequency fluctuation on the grid by dispatching rapid response generating (or stored energy) capacity.

Quick Reserve capacity is required to be able to ramp to full load within 1 minute of receiving a dispatch command. The 1 minute requirement is driven by analysis on historic frequency data which show that a time to full delivery of 1 minute or less would reduce exposure to grid frequency deviations of ±0.1 Hz from around 8% of the time to around just 3.3% of the time. In absolute terms, this means frequency could be outside ±0.1Hz for around 290 hours per year instead of around 700 hours per year.

It is generally considered that Quick Reserve is a product targeted at Battery Electricity Storage Systems (BESS), but Bowman has developed the StartIQ™ fast start eCompressor product to enable natural gas-fired combustion engine generators to be able to participate. This is a much lower cost option and also represents an arguably more sustainable option in the context that existing grid connected assets can be utilised, avoiding the need for costly and highly resource intensive battery solutions to be built out. Keep an eye out for our next article on the opportunity StartIQ™ represents for UK flexible power operators.

9 January 2024

Quick Reserve is coming and StartIQ™ is ready to meet the challenge

Share this article
Image

National Grid will soon be rolling out new grid reserve solutions and we have developed StartIQ™, our fast start eCompressor, to enable natural gas-fired combustion engine generators to be able to participate. Our CEO, Paul Dowman-Tucker, explains...

“It's fabulous to see that National Grid Electricity System Operator (NGESO) has released final details of its new Quick and Slow Reserve balancing services. Having been under consultation between NGESO and industry since October 2020, Quick Reserve is now proposed to be rolled out from August this year.”

These grid frequency management products provide NGESO with a solution to manage frequency fluctuation on the grid by dispatching rapid response generating (or stored energy) capacity.

Quick Reserve capacity is required to be able to ramp to full load within 1 minute of receiving a dispatch command. The 1 minute requirement is driven by analysis on historic frequency data which show that a time to full delivery of 1 minute or less would reduce exposure to grid frequency deviations of ±0.1 Hz from around 8% of the time to around just 3.3% of the time. In absolute terms, this means frequency could be outside ±0.1Hz for around 290 hours per year instead of around 700 hours per year.

It is generally considered that Quick Reserve is a product targeted at Battery Electricity Storage Systems (BESS), but Bowman has developed the StartIQ™ fast start eCompressor product to enable natural gas-fired combustion engine generators to be able to participate. This is a much lower cost option and also represents an arguably more sustainable option in the context that existing grid connected assets can be utilised, avoiding the need for costly and highly resource intensive battery solutions to be built out. Keep an eye out for our next article on the opportunity StartIQ™ represents for UK flexible power operators.

9 January 2024

Quick Reserve is coming and StartIQ™ is ready to meet the challenge

Share this article
Image

National Grid will soon be rolling out new grid reserve solutions and we have developed StartIQ™, our fast start eCompressor, to enable natural gas-fired combustion engine generators to be able to participate. Our CEO, Paul Dowman-Tucker, explains...

“It's fabulous to see that National Grid Electricity System Operator (NGESO) has released final details of its new Quick and Slow Reserve balancing services. Having been under consultation between NGESO and industry since October 2020, Quick Reserve is now proposed to be rolled out from August this year.”

These grid frequency management products provide NGESO with a solution to manage frequency fluctuation on the grid by dispatching rapid response generating (or stored energy) capacity.

Quick Reserve capacity is required to be able to ramp to full load within 1 minute of receiving a dispatch command. The 1 minute requirement is driven by analysis on historic frequency data which show that a time to full delivery of 1 minute or less would reduce exposure to grid frequency deviations of ±0.1 Hz from around 8% of the time to around just 3.3% of the time. In absolute terms, this means frequency could be outside ±0.1Hz for around 290 hours per year instead of around 700 hours per year.

It is generally considered that Quick Reserve is a product targeted at Battery Electricity Storage Systems (BESS), but Bowman has developed the StartIQ™ fast start eCompressor product to enable natural gas-fired combustion engine generators to be able to participate. This is a much lower cost option and also represents an arguably more sustainable option in the context that existing grid connected assets can be utilised, avoiding the need for costly and highly resource intensive battery solutions to be built out. Keep an eye out for our next article on the opportunity StartIQ™ represents for UK flexible power operators.