Project Windy

Project Windy was Energise Barnsley’s first battery storage project, launched in 2017. It involved installation of 40 batteries for free in the homes of 36 tenants in The Willows estate, and monitoring these batteries over two years. 27 of the homes had PV systems, enabling a comparison of the battery’s use within PV systems and without PV systems.

Whilst we colloquially call the project ‘Project Windy’, the project was part of  ‘The Distributed Storage and Solar Study (DS3) Project by Northern Powergrid. 

The Social Impact of Project Windy

As a result of the project, several households received free solar panels and solar panel installation. All households received free batteries. Additional households received free broadband over the project period to enable remote monitoring of the devices.

Project Aims

Project Windy aimed to explore two hypotheses: 

1. Would battery energy storage systems (BESS) reduce the growing issues that increased uptake of PV systems were causing for the low voltage electricity network?
2. Would BESS also help the network better cope with issues associated with the evening peak demand?

Methodology

The project monitored a cluster of 40 domestic BESS across 36 households, for two years. 27 of the households had PV, enabling comparison.

Findings

• When added to the initial savings from solar PV, tenants saw energy bills reduced by up to £60 p.a. per battery.
• Network operators can promote BESS to reduce the need for network upgrades
• The batteries even provided benefit to the network when operated in ‘customer focused mode’, though maximum benefit was delivered in ‘network focussed mode’. 

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