To go alongside the publication of our March 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), from January 2020 to March 2022 (inclusive).

In March 2022, average earnings (£/MW) for BESS assets were the lowest they’ve been since December 2021, falling 23.7% from February 2022. This was largely driven by a fall in the average availability fees for Firm Frequency Response (FFR) and Dynamic Containment (DC).

Asset revenues

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

Asset strategies can be split into three categories:

• Strictly FFR.
• Dynamic Containment (DC) and merchant markets.
• Hybrid (a mixture of DC, FFR, and merchant markets).

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

• The average revenue for BESS assets providing FFR was £9,602/MW - the lowest of all three operational strategies.
• The average revenue for assets providing DC and participating in merchant markets was £11,337/MW, 27.1% lower than in February 2022. It was still, on average, the most lucrative strategy adopted by BESS assets in March 2022.

Further analysis - March markets in review

DC clearing prices

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

• On average across the month, DCL cleared at £17.11/MW/h.
• The average clearing price for providing the service symmetrically (at 90% rated power) was £19.09/MW/h in March, 29.2% lower than in February 2022.

FFR vs. DC

Figure 5 (below) shows the accepted bids in FFR for the nineteen assets that participated in the service during March 2022, against the monthly captured price of assets that provided DC instead, split by EFA block. The capture price for DC highlights the value of the service for assets across the month, taking into consideration instances where assets were rejected from participating.

• On average, FFR was more lucrative in EFA blocks 1-3, providing FFR than DCL.
• The EFA block with the largest difference in average prices between the services (£10.47/MW/h) was EFA 5, where DCL was (on average) more lucrative for assets.

BESS activity in the BM

In March 2022, Balancing Mechanism (BM) revenues only made up 0.98% of GB BESS fleet average revenues, the lowest level since September 2021. Figure 6 (below) shows the daily BM revenues for all BMU-registered BESS assets.

Wholesale prices

There were few instances of high price spikes in wholesale markets during March 2022. This is highlighted in Figure 7 (below), which shows Nordpool’s day-ahead hourly auction.