In November 2024, battery energy storage systems in Great Britain earned an average revenue of £52k/MW (annualized). This was 12% lower than in October as wholesale price spreads fell 13%. Despite the lower wholesale spreads, Jamesfield 1 and 2 earned £134k/MW/year from wholesale markets, 60% more than any other battery.
Our market update discusses battery revenues, including Capacity Market earnings, on a £/MW/year basis. For monthly battery operations updates, we will discuss revenues excluding the Capacity Market. That’s because the Capacity Market does not impact operational strategies.
Scottish batteries top the highest revenue performers
Jamesfield 1 and 2 earned revenue primarily through a Dynamic Regulation High, Balancing Mechanism, and wholesale trading strategy. The batteries imported energy through the Balancing Mechanism and Dynamic Regulation High and exported energy through the wholesale markets. The two units earned an average of £74k/MW/year.
Overall, all the top five assets performed Dynamic Regulation High to import energy and wholesale trading to export it. Similarly, four out of five batteries were based in Scotland, with Chapel Farm in the east of England.
Dynamic Regulation High contracts provided high value in November
To provide Dynamic Regulation High, a battery constantly imports energy to manage grid frequency. On average, a 10 MW battery that performs the service all day will import 27 MWh. This means batteries that provide a lot of Dynamic Regulation High have a lot of energy to sell.
Dynamic Regulation High is usually priced negatively, meaning batteries are paying to charge up. Alternatively, batteries can charge up in the wholesale market. However, in November, Dynamic Regulation High contracts were better value than the wholesale market.
It was cheaper for batteries to buy energy through Dynamic Regulation High than through wholesale trading - increasing revenue.
On November 25th, in EFA block 2, batteries delivering Dynamic Regulation High were paid £43/MWh for the service, while it would have cost them £5/MWh to import through the wholesale market.
In EFA block 5 on November 5th and 6th, batteries paid £100/MWh less to import energy through Dynamic Regulation High, than through the wholesale market.
Jamesfield 2 earned 58% more revenue through its Dynamic Regulation High - wholesale strategy
On November 6th, the cost of importing through Dynamic Regulation High was half the price of importing through the wholesale markets. This means batteries following a strategy of importing through Dynamic Regulation High and exporting through the wholesale markets performed well.
In particular, Jamesfield 2 earned 58% more than the average revenue for batteries on this day. Prices in the wholesale market were high through the day at £127/MWh - reaching an average of £249/MWh across EFA block 5.