THE first step in delivering a new 100MW energy storage facility in Northern Ireland was unveiled yesterday.
The Advancion Energy Storage Array - essentially a giant battery - has been installed by AES at its power station in Kilroot.
The company said the facility would provide £8.5 million in savings to the north's electricity system a year and would reduce the equivalent of 123,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.
The battery will initially store around 10MW of energy and is one of the first of its kind in Europe and will be the biggest to date installed in the UK or Ireland.
John Zahurancik, AES Energy Storage president said the battery created efficiencies by better regulating the work of power stations.
"This allows plants to be more efficient as they have very intense periods of creating energy and then slow down.
"This works by storing energy so that it can be used to regulate those changes (of intensity)."
Deputy first minister Martin McGuinness who toured the new plant said it had "the potential to benefit all of us by lowering costs, helping the environment and improving security of supply to our homes and businesses".
"It is also an important factor as we look to decarbonise our energy supplies. I thank AES and congratulate them on their achievements and wish them every success with their proposals for full-scale deployment of the array," he added.
Enterprise minister Jonathan Bell added: "Ability to meet demand for electricity is one of the highest priorities for any Government. Energy drives economies and having available a source of power which can respond quickly to help meet demand at peak times can make an important contribution to system security.”
The array has been in operation since January 5 and will be among the the largest in the world when fully complete.
Globally, AES owns and operates the world’s largest advanced energy storage fleet, with 116 MW in operation, and a further 268 MW in construction or late stage development.
