Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (GIG) has acquired its first utility-scale battery storage development portfolio in the UK from Capbal Limited.

They have partnered to deliver an initial 187MWh of projects, which includes seven projects located in highly congested areas of the UK network, including Scotland and South East England.

They will provide a number of grid services, including frequency response and participate in National Grid’s Balancing Mechanism to help the system operator balance demand and supply in real time.

Construction of the first projects are expected to start this year.

The UK needs to increase its proportion of intermittent solar and wind capacity in its generation mix by almost 60% by 2030 to meet the 2050 net zero target.

Battery storage provides grid operators with the tools and flexibility to deal with the increased variability of supply and match it to the demand by charging during periods of high generation and low demand and discharging when generation is low and demand is high.

This helps ease pressure on congested areas of the grid, enabling more renewable energy to come online while reducing the reliance on high carbon forms of generation to provide balancing services.

Edward Northam, Head of GIG UK and Europe said: “Net zero demands an overhaul of our entire energy systems – for us to fundamentally rethink not just how we generate energy but how we get it where we need it, when we need it. Out success in creating a flexible, low carbon energy system is inextricably linked to our success in delivering energy storage at scale.

“GIG’s partnership with Capbal is an exciting first step for us in this market and we look forward to creating even more opportunities to accelerate the deployment of this critical technology.”