The Anonymous Widower

Highview Power’s Second Commercial System In Yorkshire

This is all that Highview Power say about their proposed system in Yorkshire, on their web site.

Highview Power’s second commercial renewable energy power station in the UK is a 200MW/2.5GWh facility in Yorkshire. This is the first of 18 sites for UK wide deployment strategically located to benefit from the existing transmission infrastructure.

I have a few thoughts.

How Does The Size Of This System Fit With Other Systems?

According to the Highview Power web site the Manchester system is a 50MW/300MWh facility, but Wikipedia has this system as a 50MW/250MWh.

In this article on the Telegraph, which is entitled Britain Will Soon Have A Glut Of Cheap Power, And World-Leading Batteries To Store It, it is stated that they are planning a battery with this specification, location and timeline.

• 2.5 GW output
• 30 GWh of storage
• Located on Humberside
• Delivery in late 2024.

This CRYOBattery is an absolute monster.

Will The Humberside CRYOBattery Be Built At Creyke Beck Substation?

In Highview Power’s Plan To Add Energy Storage To The UK Power Network, I came to the conclusion, that the Humberside CRYOBattery will most likely be built near Creyke Beck substation, which is close to Cottingham.

• Dogger Bank A, Dogger Bank B and Hornsea 4 offshore wind farms will all be connected to the Creyke Beck substation.
• These wind farms have a total capacity of 3.4 GW.
• The Humberside CRYOBattery, now looks to have a maximum output of 2.5 GW.
• It looks like the Humberside CRYOBattery would be a well-matched backup to the three planned wind farms and perhaps even a few more turbines.

Building the Humberside CRYOBattery at Creyke Beck substation would appear to be a sensible decision.

Is Cottingham In Humberside, Yorkshire Or Both?

The Wikipedia entry for the village is named Cottingham, East Riding of Yorkshire, says this.

A golf course and leisure club on Wood Hill Way, and a major (400/275 kV AC) electricity substation “Creyke Beck”, lie just outside the formal boundaries of the parish, within Skidby civil parish.

Skidby is definitely in Yorkshire.

Where Are The Other Seventeen Sites?

The Yorkshire facility is indicated to be one of 18 sites on the Highview Power web site. Where are the other seventeen?

All we know is that they will be strategically located to benefit from the existing transmission infrastructure.

This is said in the Wikipedia entry, which is entitled High-Voltage Substations In The United Kingdom.

In 2020 there were 179 400 kV substations and 137 275 kV substations.

He who pays the money, makes the choice!

Has The Company Changed Direction?

I wrote Highview Power Names Rupert Pearce Chief Executive Officer on April 12th, 2022.

• Since then, the Vermont and Chile projects have disappeared from the web site and projects in Yorkshire and Australia have been added.
• The web site has also been improved.
• As new CEOs often do, is Rupert Pearce refocussing the company?

Are they also looking in detail at current projects?

Has The Yorkshire Project Grown Substantially?

Consider.

• National Grid are a company that has improved its image and engineering in recent years.
• It has shown it can obtain finance for infrastructure from the City of London and respected financial institutions.
• National Grid probably have extensive computer models of their electricity network.
• National Grid knows it must add energy storage to their electricity network.
• National Grid pays almost a billion pounds a year to wind farm operators to shut them down.

Eventually saving up to a billion pounds would be a good reason to have a small bet on promising technology.

Did Rupert Pearce ask his engineers to design the largest CRYOBattery they can?

Did National Grid have a count up sand find that twenty CRYOBatteries would cover all the strategic points on their transmission infrastructure?

According to the figures on the Highview Power web site (200 MW/2.5 GWh), eighteen systems like the one proposed for Yorkshire would have.

• A total output of 3.6 GW
• A total storage capacity of 45 GWh

The figures given in the article in the Telegraph (2.5 GW/30 GWh) for the very large system, would mean that twenty systems would have.

• A total output of 50 GW
• A total storage capacity of 600 GWh

These figures are between thirteen and fourteen times larger than those originally proposed.

Building The System

The Highview Power web site, says this about the deployment of eighteen systems.

UK wide deployment strategically located to benefit from the existing transmission infrastructure.

This Google Map shows the Creyke Beck substation.

Could 30 GWh of liquid-air storage be accommodated on the site?

I can see a large insulated sphere, partly buried in the ground being used.

Designing, building and testing the first system will probably be the most difficult part of the project.

• But once the first system is successfully working reliably, the roll-out of other systems can be started.
• The biggest problem will probably be planning permissions, so the systems must be designed to be sympathetic to the local environment.

I can certainly see, twenty of these systems in the UK, but how many others will we see worldwide?

I

July 30, 2022 - Posted by AnonW | Energy, Energy Storage | 30 GWh CRYOBattery, CRYOBattery, Dogger Bank Wind Farms, Highview Power, Humberside, National Grid, Rupert Pearce, Yorkshire