Battery energy storage revenues in Great Britain rose by 42% in August, earning £56k/MW/year. This almost tied the high for 2024 set in April. August featured an additional 49 hours of negative power prices, as high wind generation met low demand.
Record-high Balancing Mechanism revenues in August 2024
In August, revenues from wholesale trading, frequency response, and the Balancing Mechanism all increased. The largest increase came from the Balancing Mechanism which rose to £12k/MW/year, beating the previous record set in April 2024 by £2.5k/MW/year.
Combined with improved wholesale trading opportunities, batteries generated their highest revenue from these two income streams since December 2022, when wholesale prices spiked to £2,500/MWh.
Capacity Market revenues reduced by £500/MW/Year. This is because August has the lowest weighting for payments, as it is normally the lowest-demand month of the year. Excluding Capacity Market revenues, batteries earned their highest revenue so far in 2024.
Various factors, including wind generation, gas and carbon prices, and in-merit dispatch rates drive battery revenues. August saw increases in all of these macro factors.
August continued the trend of battery revenues being strongly linked to wind generation
In the last year, battery energy storage revenues have shown a strong relationship to the level of wind generation on the grid. This has been particularly apparent since the start of April, as higher renewable generation has led to better two-cycle trading opportunities.