To go alongside the publication of our February 2022 Leaderboard, Alex and Imrith discuss battery energy storage system (BESS) trends and strategies from last month. Watch below to see how these have shaped the Leaderboard.

Leaderboard analysis

Fleet revenues

Figure 1 (below) shows the average fleet revenues for BESS assets in Great Britain (GB).

Average earnings (£/MW) for BESS assets in February grew 22.51% from January 2022. This is largely driven by the high, (volume-weighted) average clearing price in Dynamic Containment Low (DCL) which was £22.86/MW/h across February.

Asset revenues

Figure 2 (below) shows the revenues of assets from Modo’s Leaderboard in February 2022.

Asset strategies can be split into three categories:

• Strictly FFR;
• Dynamic Containment (DC) and merchant markets; and
• hybrid (DC, FFR, and merchant markets).

Figure 3 (below) shows asset revenues for the different operational strategies taken in February 2022.

• The average revenue for BESS assets solely providing FFR was £9,815/MW, 16.54% lower than in January 2022.
• The average revenue for assets solely providing DC and participating in merchant markets was £15,557/MW, 58.5% higher than those strictly providing FFR.

Further analysis - February markets in review

DC monthly clearing prices

Figure 4 (below) shows the average clearing prices (volume-weighted) in DC for February 2022.

• On average across the month, DCL cleared at £22.87/MW/h, an all-time high since the service launched.
• The average clearing price for providing the service symmetrically (at 90% rated power) was £26.95/MW/h in February, 60% higher compared to January 2022.

FFR vs. DC

Figure 5 (below) shows the accepted bids in FFR for the twenty-two assets that participated in the service during February 2022, against the average clearing prices (volume-weighted) in DC for each EFA block.

• The average EFA 5 clearing price in DCL was £43.56/MW/h, higher than every other accepted BESS asset in FFR during this EFA block.
• In EFA block 4 DCL cleared on average higher than providing DC symmetrically (at 90% rated power).

BESS activity in the BM

In February 2022, Balancing Mechanism (BM) revenues only made up 1.30% of GB BESS fleet average revenues. Figure 6 (below) shows the daily BM revenues for all BMU registered BESS assets.

Wholesale prices

Price spikes in wholesale markets have become more commonplace since the energy crisis began in October 2021. However, in February 2022 wholesale markets were much calmer, with fewer instances of high price spikes. This is highlighted in Figure 7 (below) which shows Nordpool’s day-ahead hourly auction.