About Arenko
Arenko is a market-leading technology provider enabling the clean energy transition. Our technology enhances the return of batteries and renewables and opens the industry to more investment and innovation. Our mission is to build a sustainable future by enabling a zero-carbon grid worldwide. https://arenko.group/

About Varco Energy
Varco Energy is based in the UK and backed by the Adaptogen Capital Battery Storage Fund. Varco is committed to driving the energy transition to a net-zero future by building flexible energy storage in the UK. Varco currently has 274MWhs of BESS projects under construction to keep moving the UK towards a renewable future. https://www.varco.energy/

About Adaptogen Capital
Adaptogen Capital is a specialist battery storage investment firm backed by some of the earliest investors in the UK storage industry. We were founded to provide insightful expertise to our investors and help them navigate the energy transition as sustainably and profitably as possible. Capital comes from a broad range of family office and institutional investors, with significant investment from our founding directors. https://www.adaptogencapital.com/

PR Contact
Tom Huddart/Rebecca Waterworth
Camarco
+44 (0)20 3757 4991

About Arenko
Arenko is a market-leading technology provider enabling the clean energy transition. Our technology enhances the return of batteries and renewables and opens the industry to more investment and innovation. Our mission is to build a sustainable future by enabling a zero-carbon grid worldwide. https://arenko.group/

PR Contact
Tom Huddart/Rebecca Waterworth
Camarco
+44 (0)20 3757 4991

The non-equity dilutive program is designed to help mature startups accelerate decarbonization at scale

March 8, 2023—Arenko announced today that it has been selected as one of the 15 startups that will participate in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Clean Energy Accelerator 3.0, a high-pace, non-equity dilutive accelerator designed to facilitate collaborations with mature startups developing breakthrough clean energy technologies. The program is focused on fostering innovation and rapid growth of clean energy technology, which is needed to address the global climate crisis.

“The ground-breaking innovations, products and solutions displayed in the previous Clean Energy Accelerator programs have offered an inspiring glimpse into the energy systems of the future, and chart a path towards accelerating decarbonization at scale,” said Howard Gefen, General Manager of Energy and Utilities, AWS. “We’re pleased to welcome Arenko into the Clean Energy Accelerator 3.0, and work together to take on one of the greatest challenges of our generation.”

“We are excited to join the AWS Clean Energy Accelerator and work towards overcoming clean energy and decarbonization challenges,” said Rupert Newland, CEO. “Through this program we can help define and shape the future of clean energy innovation.”

Primary focus areas of the AWS Clean Energy Accelerator 3.0 include: advanced materials; carbon capture, utility and storage; economic hydrogen generation, transport, and use; energy storage; grid modernization; energy security and reliance.

The program is designed to spur co-innovation through energy collaborations, and is centered on the needs of mature startups from across the globe. Through the program, industry and thought leaders will mentor startups on topics like energy, digital competency, investment, public policy, innovation, and advanced research. Leading energy organizations will work with selected startups on addressing clean energy and decarbonization challenges, while AWS provides guidance in accelerating experimentation, expanding automation, and delivering deep insights by leveraging the cloud.

The AWS Clean Energy Accelerator 3.0 will include 12 weeks of virtual and in-person programming, kicking off in Seattle in April. The program will have an expanded reach and scope, which includes international exchange sprints to foster tech innovation hubs around the world, including one in the UAE, in collaboration with Masdar City. The Clean Energy Accelerator 3.0 will culminate with the Innovation Showcase that will be held at the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 28) next November in Dubai. The event will include CEA startups showcasing their clean energy technology innovations, and highlights on the latest CEA-driven clean energy technology pilot programs. Click here to pre-register for the Clean Energy Accelerator Innovation Showcase and receive the latest program updates.

Learn more about the AWS Clean Energy Accelerator at: www.aws.amazon.com/energy/clean-energy-accelerator.

About Arenko
Arenko is a market-leading technology provider enabling the clean energy transition. Our technology enhances the return of batteries and renewables and opens the industry to more investment and innovation. Our mission is to build a sustainable future by enabling a zero-carbon grid worldwide. https://arenko.group/

PR Contact
Tom Huddart/Rebecca Waterworth
Camarco
+44 (0)20 3757 4991

Arenko has delivered an additional £1m of revenue per annum for every 50MW battery versus competitors and is pleased to release a performance update of battery assets using our Nimbus software and launch the Nimbus Portfolio Performance Tool.

Highlights

• Arenko is the top performing battery optimiser in UK year to date
• Assets using Arenko’s technology-led optimisation service capture over £1m excess revenue per annum for every 50MW battery versus market average
• Batteries optimised by Nimbus captured 8% higher revenue than closest competitor optimiser
• Our analysis is based on year to date (January to October 2022) performance of every operational battery in the UK, including estimated cost to serve
• Performance is adjusted to account for part year operations and is based on data from Elexon, National Grid, and EPEX
• Launch of Nimbus Portfolio Performance Tool which provides the most extensive and granular data set available, mapping the financial performance of every UK battery system, for every settlement period
  • Provides a dataset of the financial performance of every operational UK battery
  • First of its kind tool analysing the profitability of battery assets and including the estimated cost to serve across the entire battery revenue stack with model assumptions validated against the real performance of assets
  • Tool can be used to review the performance of every battery, battery portfolio, optimiser, trading strategy, battery provider and battery size

Battery Performance Update

Arenko is delighted to announce that, in the year to date, batteries operated though our Route to Market service, using our Nimbus software, have generated a 14% higher battery return than the industry average, and an 8% higher battery return than the next closest competitor optimiser.

Assets optimised by Nimbus have delivered an industry leading average annualised battery return of £168k per operational MW per year, equivalent to more than £1m per 50MW battery per year above the market average.

This analysis highlights that Arenko’s technology-led optimisation service has consistently delivered market leading results in the period, across a broad range of assets, from multiple technology providers, and across a range of different trading environments.

Our analysis can be found below for the period January to October 2022:

Launch of Arenko’s Portfolio Performance Tool

Arenko is also delighted to launch the beta version of its Nimbus Portfolio Performance Tool. This marks the first tool of its kind to be made publicly available that extensively maps the financial performance across the full revenue stack (all wholesale trading and ancillary services[1]), including the estimated cost to serve of all UK batteries for every settlement period with model assumptions validated against the real performance of assets.

The result of over a year’s data science effort at Arenko, the Nimbus Portfolio Performance Tool was developed to increase confidence and transparency amongst customers and stakeholders and to enable greater understanding of underlying performance in the industry. This tool represents the most granular and extensive dataset available to assess financial performance, trading strategies and asset performance to enable robust decision making for asset owners, optimisers, traders, and investors in the rapidly growing and maturing UK energy storage market.

The Nimbus Portfolio Performance Tool consistently operates to a high level of accuracy enabling our customers to:

• Understand trading strategies of every battery asset in the UK across all markets in the revenue stack;
• Benchmark all optimisers, battery providers and asset sizes;
• Record the financial performance of every asset; and
• Understand the financial impact of downtime

Arenko’s Nimbus Portfolio Performance Tool is now available as a premium service. To sign up for the tool, please contact Darren Toner (Arenko’s Commercial Manager) at dt@arenko.group.

[1] Excluding capacity market revenue.

Rupert Newland, CEO, Arenko, commented:

“We are thrilled that Arenko’s Nimbus platform is substantially outperforming the industry average and is the number one ranked portfolio in the UK. This performance validates our focus on our technology and our team, and we look forward to continuing to deliver market leading performance for our customers and their investors.

 

“We also believe the release of our Nimbus Portfolio Performance Tool will be hugely beneficial for asset owners. It is an exceptionally powerful decision-making tool for the industry and we look forward to delivering this to our customers.”

Arenko, a leading technology provider enabling the clean energy transition, is pleased to announce the launch of its sustainability strategy.

Highlights:

• Arenko is committed to being carbon neutral in scopes 1, 2 and 3 by 2023 to help tackle climate change, and demonstrate our commitment to accelerating the transition to net zero
• Arenko is committed to diversity and inclusivity and is aiming to achieve 60% in its Diversity Index* across all levels and countries in the business by 2025
• Arenko will continue to deliver transformative technology and has made a commitment to spend 20% of its profit on research & development (‘R&D’) annually

Arenko’s technology enables the energy transition, offering software that boosts the performance of renewable assets as well as delivering a solution to the variability of solar and wind. The Group will continue to invest in its technology to develop new products that enable its customers to maximise return from their assets, as well as contributing towards net zero and increasing energy security and energy affordability.

Arenko is also committed to empowering its people and is continuously expanding its search for new, diverse talent.

To find out more, the sustainability strategy can be found at https://arenko.group/sustainability

Eddie Siow, CFO and Chair of the Sustainability Committee, Arenko Group, said:

“As the chair of the sustainability committee, I am delighted to be launching our sustainability strategy. The transition to net zero is the challenge of our time. We have rigorously reviewed our business and have set clear milestones across our three focus areas: enabling net zero, empowering people and delivering transformative technology. Moving forward we are committed to delivering and disclosing our performance against our targets, and continuing to develop our sustainability strategy as a way of managing risk and delivering shareholder value.”

Arenko, a leading technology provider, building a sustainable future by enabling a zero-carbon grid worldwide, is pleased to announce that it has signed a second contract with Vattenfall to optimise a new co-located 20MW/45.5MWh battery asset in Northumberland, North East England, which is expected to be energised later this year.

The award of this contract follows on from the contract to optimise Vattenfall’s 22 MW / 16 MWh  battery, co-located at the 228MW Pen y Cymoedd Wind Farm in South Wales, announced on 13 May 2022.

This is the second battery asset co-located to a wind farm site in the UK to be optimised by Arenko’s leading optimisation software. A battery asset co-located at a wind farm site can benefit from using the existing wind farm grid export connection. Arenko is the market leader in providing complete end-to-end trade optimisation and automated dispatch software to maximise returns on co-located assets.

The asset will utilise Arenko’s cloud-based software, Nimbus, which forecasts market and asset conditions, performing millions of simulations per day to optimise trading decisions and asset performance across markets, and then securely and autonomously dispatch stored energy from the asset.

Arenko’s technology continues to provide a global platform that delights customers through intelligent control of energy assets and provides the technology for the industry to freely innovate.

Rupert Newland, Founder and CEO of Arenko Group, said:

“We see this second contract with Vattenfall as a testament to Arenko’s optimisation services and as reaffirmation of the potential of our technology to add value to customers. We are incredibly excited for the opportunity to optimise the first two-hour duration asset in our growing Route-To-Market portfolio. We are delighted to be building on our existing relationship with Vattenfall and hope to continue to grow this relationship even further in the future.”

Kyle Philpott, Project Developer at Vattenfall, said:

“We are delighted to be working with Arenko again with a contract to optimise Battery@Ray. Local and regional solutions for storing and using electricity are becoming more and more important as we move to net zero and our electricity requirements increase.

 

Once energised later this year, Battery@Ray will play an important part in helping us achieve our goal of fossil fuel free living within one generation.”

Arenko, a leading technology provider, building a sustainable future by enabling a zero-carbon grid worldwide, is delighted to announce the launch of its Nimbus product range for battery owners. The Nimbus product range is a complete software solution which connects and optimises batteries using Arenko’s automation technology, AI, enhanced analytics and deep-learning algorithms.

Arenko’s vision is to provide a global platform that delights customers through intelligent control of energy assets and provides the technology for the industry to freely innovate. The new products announced today will build on and complement Arenko’s existing strengths in optimising and trading energy storage assets:

• Nimbus-Asset unlocks improved asset performance and allows participation in the most advanced of energy markets
• Nimbus-Exchange provides simple and cost-effective access to multiple power markets and grid operators
• Nimbus-Trade is an off the shelf solution to simplify the trading of energy storage assets, enabling customers to control assets and scale faster
• Nimbus-Marketplace is a digital marketplace providing access to a network of innovative software products via Arenko’s trusted third party developers, providing customers with a new degree of flexibility to maximise the value from their energy storage assets

Arenko’s products and services are already widely used by energy companies and investors, with over 1.7GW of batteries operational and in development already contracted to use Nimbus and c.25% of UK batteries using Nimbus today. The technology has been tested and proven on some of the world’s largest batteries since it was first launched in 2017 giving Arenko a deep understanding of the market it operates in.

Nimbus is designed for asset owners to maximise financial and technical performance across their battery assets and portfolio. By integrating with all battery technologies and optimisers it provides flexibility of choice for our customers.

Nimbus products can be used individually or bundled together and are designed for standalone batteries and batteries co-located with renewables, globally. The new products will allow Arenko’s customers to maximise returns from their assets and enable the energy transition to a net zero future.

Rupert Newland, Founder and CEO of Arenko Group, said:

“Since our foundation in 2014, Arenko has developed market leading software to optimise energy storage assets. During that time, we have also listened to our customers, helping us to understand their needs in a rapidly changing industry. We are therefore delighted to be launching our new suite of products that will enable zero carbon grids worldwide and will be the go-to product for asset owners globally. We are fully funded for the next stage of our development and I look forward to it with great excitement.”

Arenko, a leading software platform provider to the energy market, is pleased to announce that it has entered live operations with Vattenfall’s 22MW / 16 MWh battery, which is co-located at the 228MW Pen y Cymoedd Wind Farm in South Wales, following the completion of its Enhanced Frequency Response (“EFR”) contract in February 2022.

The site is the first battery storage facility in the UK to be co-located at a wind farm site, allowing it to benefit from using the existing wind farm grid export connection. It consists of 500 BMW i3 automotive battery packs housed in five shipping containers and was one of the eight projects selected by National Grid to provide the EFR until February 2022.

Arenko is the first company to optimise a storage asset co-located with a wind farm in the UK. Arenko has repurposed the asset to be optimised into wholesale, day-ahead and intraday markets.  Arenko is using its cloud-based optimisation software, Nimbus, to forecast market conditions, perform millions of simulations per day to optimise trading decisions across markets, and then securely and autonomously dispatch stored energy from the asset. This complete solution results in increased return on investment  for asset owners and streamlined portfolio growth for flexible assets on an energy grid in which decisions have to be made with ever- increasing speed.

Arenko aims to be the market leader providing complete end-to-end trade optimisation and automated dispatch software to maximise returns on co-located assets. Arenko’s technology continues to aid its customers by enabling the flexibility required to support the global transition to a zero-carbon grid.

Rupert Newland, Founder and CEO of Arenko Group, said:

“We are delighted to start delivering on our contract with Vattenfall, one of Europe’s leading energy groups. It’s been a great opportunity to demonstrate the efficacy and power of our technology on a co-located asset.”

Jake Dunn, Commercial Manager at Vattenfall, said:

“At Vattenfall, our goal is to enable fossil fuel free living within one generation. We are determined to help this energy transition not just through renewable generation but also supporting grid stability through co located battery storage projects. Now the EFR contract has come to an end, the battery will move to a more diverse range of ancillary services and we are grateful to be assisted in this by the market leading expertise of Arenko.”

Arenko, a leading technology provider enabling the clean energy transition, is pleased to announce that Mike Wallace has joined Arenko as Chief Commercial Officer.  Mike will have a central role in helping the Company deliver on its vision to provide a global platform that delights customers through intelligent control of energy assets and provides the technology for the industry to freely innovate.

Mike has a proven track record of growing global companies having worked for both UK and US registered businesses. Recently, Mike has held positions as Chief Revenue Officer for a UK SME business operating in the Cyber security and IT Services markets and for one of Capita’s software businesses selling SaaS, AI and professional services into the Energy and broader Utilities sectors. Mike grew and then sold this Capita business in 2022. Prior to this Mike held a number of other Director and main board roles with software, technology and services businesses across Telecoms, Fintech and Civil Engineering. Mike has a wealth of experience managing global sales, marketing and account management teams as well as delivering customer service.

Mike has a degree in Economics and is a member of the Institute of Directors. Mike will join the Arenko Leadership Team immediately.

Rupert Newland, Founder and CEO of Arenko Group, said:

“We are delighted that we have been able to attract a CCO of Mike’s calibre to Arenko. We are at an important stage of our growth trajectory as we seek to expand our product offering and geographies to meet the global needs of the energy transition. Mike will bring a huge amount of experience and expertise and we look forward to welcoming him to the team as we work together to build on the continued success of Arenko.”

Mike Wallace, CCO of Arenko Group, said:

“Arenko is perfectly positioned to facilitate a global transition to a zero-carbon future. I look forward to working with the Arenko team and contributing to its next phase of growth as we work towards creating a business that can deliver for our clients on one of the biggest issues we face today.”

Arenko, a leading software platform provider to the global energy asset automation market, is pleased to announce the appointment of Eddie Siow as Chief Financial Officer. Eddie brings over 17 years’ experience working in a variety of senior and board roles in the energy and financial sectors, with an established track record in operational and corporate finance, M&A and capital raising, and managing and growing energy transition businesses.

He joins Arenko from ENGIE, the global energy and services company, where he held the position of Finance Director of ENGIE Futures, a £150m revenue UK portfolio of heat networks, electric vehicle charging, and distributed and renewable generation businesses. At ENGIE, he also was a board member for its UK onshore wind and solar assets, and helped develop greenfield investment opportunities.

Prior to ENGIE, Eddie was a director in the investment bank at Barclays, where he led and executed M&A and capital raising transactions in public and private markets focusing on power, utilities, renewable energy, regulated networks, and infrastructure. Previously, Eddie also worked in investment banking at Lehman Brothers and Nomura.

Eddie holds a Master of Studies in Sustainability Leadership (MSt) from the University of Cambridge, and a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) and Bachelor of Laws (BCom LLB) from the University of New South Wales. Eddie qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young in London.

Rupert Newland, Founder and CEO of Arenko Group, said:

“We are delighted to welcome Eddie as CFO to the Arenko team. Eddie’s significant financial experience and deep sector expertise in grid scale and distributed renewable energy will greatly enhance our management team. Eddie will provide the financial expertise necessary to enable Arenko to facilitate a global transition to a zero-carbon future.”

Eddie Siow, CFO of Arenko Group, said:

“I am passionate about the role of capital in delivering the energy transition to achieve Net Zero. I look forward to joining the Arenko team and contributing to its next phase of growth as we work towards creating a zero-carbon grid.”

Arenko, a leading software platform provider to the global energy asset automation market, is pleased to announce it has signed an agreement with Foresight Group (“Foresight”), a leading infrastructure investment manager, to optimise the 50MW Sandridge energy storage asset owned by funds managed by Foresight, which is due to be operational in 2022.

Arenko will use complete end-to-end trade optimisation and automated dispatch software to maximise returns from the asset. Arenko’s cloud-based optimisation software forecasts market conditions, performs millions of simulations per day to optimise trading decisions across markets, and then securely dispatches stored energy from the assets. This complete solution results in increased return on investment (“ROI”) for asset owners and streamlined portfolio growth for flexible assets on an energy grid in which decisions have to be made with ever-increasing speed.

This is yet another step in Arenko’s technology enabling a global transition to a zero-carbon future as it aids its customers by enabling the flexibility required for the UK to run purely on zero-carbon electricity by 2025.

Rupert Newland, Founder and CEO of Arenko Group, said:

“We are pleased to have signed another major contract with a leading infrastructure investment manager in Foresight Group. Arenko will be utilising its software to deliver improved returns from the 50MW Sandridge energy storage asset. We look forward to delivering this service for our client.”

Fuad Yusibov, Investment Manager, Foresight Group, said:

“We are pleased to be optimising the Sandridge storage asset together with Arenko. We have been very impressed with Arenko’s track record, technical capabilities, and commercial proactivity. We are looking forward to generating returns for our investors and contributing to net-zero transition through various current and potential future services and markets by leveraging Arenko’s expertise.”

Arenko, a leading software platform provider to the global energy asset automation market, is pleased to announce the signing of a new software licence agreement with a listed energy infrastructure company. The customer will use Arenko’s complete end-to-end trade optimisation and automated dispatch software on its UK trading desk.

Arenko’s cloud-based optimisation software forecasts market conditions, performs millions of simulations per day to optimise trading decisions across markets, and then securely dispatches zero-carbon energy assets. This complete solution results in increased ROI for asset owners and streamlined portfolio growth for flexible assets on a grid in which decisions must be made with ever-increasing speed.

This customer is the first software licensee to benefit from Arenko’s deep technical expertise and commitment to accessing new markets quickly and seamlessly, on which Arenko built its reputation. The partnership will see Arenko optimising a growing portfolio of the customer’s batteries over the next two years.

Arenko looks forward to growing the partnership as its customer executes on its impressive development pipeline.

This is yet another step in Arenko helping to enable a global transition to a zero-carbon future.

Rupert Newland, Founder and CEO of Arenko Group, said:

“We are delighted to sign this major software deal which opens up the global software market for Arenko. Our technology is enabling the flexibility required for energy companies to access and deliver all of the capabilities of their flexible assets. We look forward to delivering this contract and many others as the software partner of choice for asset owners and operators who are supporting the transition to a zero carbon grid.”

Arenko, a leading software platform provider to the global energy investor market, is pleased to announce it has signed a trading optimisation services agreement with Vattenfall, the leading European energy company.

Vattenfall’s 22MW / 16 MWh battery is co-located at the 228MW Pen y Cymoedd Wind Farm in South Wales. It was the first battery storage in the UK to be co located at a wind farm site, allowing it to benefit from using the existing wind farm grid export connection. It consists of 500 BMW i3 automotive battery packs housed in five shipping containers and was one of the eight projects selected by National Grid to provide Enhanced Frequency Response (“EFR”) until February 2022.

With the signing of this new contract, Arenko will use complete end-to-end trade optimisation and automated dispatch software to maximise returns from February 2022 onwards. Arenko’s cloud-based optimisation software forecasts market conditions, performs millions of simulations per day to optimise trading decisions across markets, and then securely dispatches stored energy from the assets. This complete solution results in increased return on investment (“ROI”) for asset owners and streamlined portfolio growth for flexible assets on an energy grid in which decisions have to be made with ever- increasing speed.

This contract builds upon recent contract wins as Arenko’s technology aids its customers by enabling the flexibility required to support the global transition to a zero-carbon future. Arenko was pleased to work closely with Jake Dunn, Commercial Manager at Vattenfall who pioneered the development of renewables co location in the UK, to finalise this agreement.

Rupert Newland, Founder and CEO of Arenko Group, said:

“We are delighted to have signed this contract with Vattenfall, one of Europe’s leading energy companies. Arenko will be utilising our best-in-class asset optimisation services to enhance the returns from the battery asset in South Wales. This is an exciting opportunity for Arenko, and we look forward to delivering on the contract for Vattenfall and for other asset owners going forward.”

Jake Dunn, Commercial Manager at Vattenfall, said:

“At Vattenfall, our goal is to enable fossil fuel free living within one generation. We are determined to help this energy transition not just through renewable generation but also supporting grid stability through co located battery storage projects. As the EFR contract comes to an end and the battery moves to a more diverse range of ancillary services, we are grateful to be assisted in this by the market leading expertise of Arenko.”

Arenko Group is pleased to announce its Chief Product Officer, Andy Hadland, has been selected as a member of National Grid ESO’s Technology Advisory Council (“TAC”). The TAC was formed to guide ESO on its digital, data and technological transformation. The group will work closely with ESO on the development of new systems, ensuring that ESO works with the industry and gives transparency and accountability for all development.

Andy has been chosen for his expertise in technology and transformation, in recognition of his role in creating Arenko’s world leading AI platform and his contribution as a guest lecturer at Imperial College Energy Futures Lab.

Andy Hadland, Chief Product Officer, said:

“I am hugely excited to be part of such a diverse group of sector-leading experts. The TAC will play an important role guiding ESO on its transformation to deliver a cleaner energy system.

“My involvement in the TAC is another example of Arenko’s continued support for National Grid and our commitment to creating a greener future for the UK.”

A full list of members of the ESO Technology Advisory Council can be found here:

https://www.nationalgrideso.com/who-we-are/stakeholder-groups/technology-advisory-council

Arenko first provider to successfully offer non-Balancing Mechanism Units (“BMU”) Real Time Monitoring (“RTM”) for Dynamic Containment. Stacking Balancing Mechanism, Dynamic Containment and wholesale power offers immediate revenue uplift

Arenko, a leading software platform provider to the global energy asset automation market, is pleased to provide an update on its Dynamic Containment service provision. Arenko is providing this service to National Grid ESO with 51MW batteries owned by Gresham House Energy Storage Fund and Gore Street Energy Storage Fund, the two leading listed energy storage funds in the UK and has been involved in the service since its launch in October 2020.

Arenko first provider to successfully qualify for Non-BMU Real Time Monitoring

Out of a total 405MW of battery assets delivering Dynamic Containment, there are currently 207MW across 15 batteries delivering the service which are not registered as Balancing Mechanism Units (“Non-BMU”). From 1 April 2021, these assets need to qualify for Real Time Monitoring (“RTM”) or they will be ineligible to continue delivering Dynamic Containment to National Grid ESO.

Arenko has become the first provider to qualify a Non-BMU RTM battery, by successfully completing the process at Gore Street’s Lower Road 10MW battery. The process includes setting up high resolution operational metering and accurate, automated communication channels with National Grid ESO in order to pass complex Conformance Testing. This process was completed on 9 February 2021.

Arenko’s RTM solution is fully transferable onto any of our customer’s batteries. Arenko have a strong track record in rapidly onboarding new customers into dynamic containment as evidenced by our recent integration at Lower Road battery system where Arenko took one working week from attending site to passing the Independent Technical Expert certification to deliver that system into Dynamic Containment.

Stacking Dynamic Containment with Balancing Mechanism and wholesale power offers immediate revenue uplift of 3%

Arenko was the first group to offer our customers Balancing Mechanism and Dynamic Containment stacking when this was permitted by National Grid ESO on 27 January 2021. National Grid ESO have allowed batteries to rebalance their state of charge in the Balancing Mechanism rather than on the open market. This is a first step to offering full two-way stacking and allows batteries to help balance supply and demand in the grid, whilst at the same time, maintain the strength of the system by helping to manage the frequency.

Arenko’s algorithmic, fully automated software has been successfully three way stacking Dynamic Containment with Balance Mechanism and wholesale power rebalancing in real time without impacting the integrity of any service. This includes charging the battery when power prices have been negative.

This has reduced the cost of delivering dynamic containment from £0.69 per MW per hour to £0.17 per MW per hour. The £0.52 per MW per hour saving represents a 75% reduction in cost and an overall revenue uplift of 3%, which our customers benefit from. We expect a 3% to be sustained going forward which will be supplemented further through new stacking strategies which are currently in development.

Rupert Newland, Founder and CEO of Arenko Group, said:

“We are delighted to be the first to offer non-BMU Real Time Monitoring and Stacking to our customers. Our flexible software solution enables us to quickly respond to market changes so that we can rapidly offer new features to our customers and our automation technology allows us to deliver best in class performance. Today’s announcement is yet another example of Arenko’s consistent track record on being the first entrant to new markets and of how software and automation can contribute towards a cleaner, greener future.”

Arenko, a leading software platform provider to the global energy asset automation market, is pleased to announce the signing of a new contract with Gore Street Energy Storage Fund (“Gore Street”) and the commencement of services to the electric grid. Arenko was selected by Gore Street to provide its market-leading automation platform as a route-to-market for an operational 10MW energy storage project because of its track record of breaking ground in fast-changing energy markets. Gore Street is a leading and innovative listed energy storage investor.

Arenko was chosen by Gore Street to implement its AI-driven, automated software platform to optimise and transact the battery asset, significantly enhancing the asset’s financial and technical performance. Arenko implemented its solution with validation from an independent technical expert in under a week, enabling Gore Street to maximise the value of the asset immediately. This contract with Gore Street is further evidence of Arenko’s strategic shift to being the software partner of choice for battery and renewables owners globally.

With this partnership, Arenko manages 51MW of operational assets with a further 100MW contracted and scheduled to come online over the next 18 months. Arenko believes digitally connected, highly-automated battery storage assets are an essential part of the energy transition story, helping provide instantaneous power and frequency support to the grid. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the speed of the reshaping of the UK power network, resulting in renewable power now meeting up to 60% of daily demand and highlighting the essential role that will be played by battery storage and other flexible assets in the net zero grid of the future. Arenko’s software platform is designed to maximise the availability and profitability of energy assets and will help accelerate the transition towards a fully decarbonised power system.

Rupert Newland, Founder and CEO of Arenko Group, said:

“We are pleased to have signed the contract with Gore Street Energy Storage Fund, a leading energy storage fund. The project will see Arenko deliver technical software from its leading, AI-driven, automated software platform. We look forward to working with Gore Street and other forward-thinking asset owners to help them maximise the value of their assets in the future.”

Alex O’Cinneide, CEO of Gore Street Capital Limited, the investment manager of Gore Street Energy Storage Fund, added:

“We are delighted to announce Gore Street’s partnership with Arenko to implement their AI-driven automated software platform on one of our 10MW assets within our significant portfolio of energy storage projects. Further international investment in energy storage will be critical for meeting global renewable energy investment goals and we look forward to working closely with Arenko to maximise the efficiency of an important asset.”

Dynamic Containment Service: a stepping stone to a low carbon electricity system

Arenko is an energy asset optimisation and automation company using software and hardware to integrate batteries and renewables into existing and evolving electricity markets. Dynamic containment is a post-fault frequency service launched by the UK National Grid ESO (Electricity System Operator) in September 2020. This week marks the 8^th week of this service being live.

Key Points:

• Dynamic Containment is the latest frequency market from the ESO to help manage the stability of the electrical system as it evolves into a sustainable, low carbon network
• Arenko is the only company to have been successful in winning each of the daily auctions and of providing the service without any unavailability or underperformance penalties since it began
• The daily auction winning prices have consolidated on a price of £17/MW/h. This is 2-3 times the price of other frequency response services
  • This represents a net income of nearly £150k per MW per annum and a highly attractive return for battery owners
• The Independent Technical Expert who reviewed Arenko’s performance said the following: “About as close to 10/10 as you can get”
• The key next steps for this service from Arenko’s perspective is the vertical stacking of services alongside Dynamic Containment

Roger Hollies, Chief Technology Officer, said:

“Arenko see huge value to the ESO, and thus to the consumer, in facilitating participation of assets providing Dynamic Containment into other existing markets such as the Balancing Mechanism, in addition to future markets such as voltage support and thermal load management. This stacking has compound benefits of diversifying and increasing revenue streams for battery asset owners and in reducing total costs of balancing services for the ESO, ultimately reducing the cost to the end consumer. Arenko is excited to be on the front line of helping shape future, sustainable and low carbon electricity networks.”

Dynamic Containment: What is it?

The system that provides the whole country with electricity, the national grid, has a frequency: 50Hz. This is the speed at which the engines of that machine, the generators, are designed to rotate. As the system comes under load that engine slows down (just like a car working to go up a hill). As more generation comes on, the engine speeds back up again. This frequency signal is (nearly) instantaneous across the country, you can plug a basic power meter into a 3 pin plug anywhere and see the balance of supply and demand across the country by looking at the frequency measurement and how close to 50Hz it is. This frequency characteristic guides local generators to help balance the supply and demand on the grid by providing power or demand relative to the frequency.

Dynamic Containment is the latest frequency market from the ESO to help manage the stability of the electrical system as it evolves into a sustainable, low carbon network. As a relatively islanded grid with a growing percentage of our power sources from renewables, the UK is taking a global lead in developing systems that facilitate a low carbon grid. Dynamic Containment is a shining example of this as one of the most advanced frequency response services in the world. It is a post fault service and, for the moment, only provides low frequency response. That is, in the scenario where a large generator or an interconnector has a fault and trips off the system, there is a huge loss of power and the frequency plummets. Providers of Dynamic Containment respond very quickly, delivering lots of power into the network to help bring the system up to speed. The response is dynamic, meaning that power is proportional to the frequency: the worse the disturbance, the more power gets injected into the grid. The response is non-linear: when frequency deviations are low, the power response is shallow. But in the case of a drop greater than 0.2Hz, a stability target for the system operator, the response steepens rapidly to full power at 0.5Hz.

Graph 1 showing 2 way dynamic frequency response: % response with changing frequency. For the initial soft launch only the low frequency response is being procured as a service.

Initial power response is required between 250ms and 500ms with full power delivery occurring between 500ms and 1 second. Finally, the power must be provided within 3% of targeted response. Because of the speed and accuracy of this service, it is ideally suited to batteries. Batteries are capable of managing power to a fine level of control because their activity is managed by electronic power controllers, or inverters, which makes them capable of controlling power with extraordinary precision.

In batteries, power is managed by electronic power controllers (inverters) and capable of managing power to a fine level of control.

The Dynamic Containment service was launched on the 1st of October as a day-ahead auction for service provision in the following 24hrs. Arenko is the only company to have been successful in winning each of the daily auctions and of providing the service without interruption since it began.

This service pays a big reward for high performing assets

The daily auction winning prices have consolidated on a price of £17/MW/h. This is 2-3 times the price of other frequency response services. This represents a net income of nearly £150k per MW per annum and a highly attractive return for battery owners. It is important to point out that this still represents excellent value for the ESO, the price is capped at a level that is less than the cost of the alternative action, that is what else the ESO would have to do to maintain the levels of stability they require. It is an interesting development for battery owners as this revenue stream is valuing fast and precision control with high-resolution data provision as appose to the alternative trading strategy where value is largely driven by optimisation of trading strategies. For Arenko we see the real opportunity is being able to combination both, we come back to this vertically stacking markets later.

So why is Dynamic containment so valuable?  In post fault management, quicker is better: the sooner power can be dispatched to support the network, the less total power is required to resolve the issue. Imagine knocking over a heavy marble statue: if you catch it early, it is easy to keep upright, but try to catch it once it has gained momentum and you’ll need a lot of power to keep it upright. What happens if we let this statue fall over? Blackout: loss of power across large areas of the country. This is what happened in August 2019.

It is expected that these high prices commanded by early entrants will reduce as new providers enter the market and ESO’s demand for this service is satisfied, but this is not happening quickly. The ESO have an initial requirement of 500MW, increasing to 1GW next year. At the moment, less than 300MW are bidding. This is because the service is challenging to qualify for and to deliver.

The pre-qualification tests are hard

Arenko are world leaders in understanding and controlling batteries and these tests represent the most challenging qualification and delivery criteria the Company has come across. Furthermore, Arenko believe them to be the most stringent criteria of any service in which batteries can participate globally. The two key difficulties are:

• Timing the response: 500ms for an initial response is pretty easy for a battery. If tuned properly with rapid control loop interfaces, batteries can have power at the meter in less than 100ms from a power signal. What made this difficult was the limit on being too quick across a range of target power. In order to deliver both full power and down to 5% of full power to the same timing limitations, Arenko had to use a narrow range of ramp rate and initial response delay with very little margin for error.
• Response accuracy at low power. Again, accuracy to within 3% of nameplate power is easy for software defined power control. However, that same tolerance was applied to full power and down to 5% of nameplate power. 3% accuracy on 5% of nameplate power is requesting power with a tolerance of 0.015% of system nameplate power

See the graph below showing the results of test 2: the ramp test. Pink is injected frequency and green the power response. You can see the response elbow showing the low power response at low deviation.

Graph showing the results of Dynamic Containment Prequalification test 2: Ramp test

That said, Arenko made it through qualification and submitted its test results. The Independent Technical Expert who reviewed Arenko’s performance said the following: “About as close to 10/10 as you can get”. Asset owners are taking notice: Arenko is working with several who are seeking to ensure that their assets can participate in this lucrative market.

There’s lots of data

Due to the speed of response required, this service is controlled locally (at the battery) on very quick control loops. In order to understand that providers are correctly delivering this critical service the ESO requires two data flows.

• Operational Metering data is provided every second, direct to the ESO control room for a live view of what assets are doing: This data contains critical parameters such as measured frequency and delivered power at the meter.
• Performance Reporting data must be provided with a similar set of data but measured at 20Hz resolution. This data is batched up and submitted every hour of service delivery.

This is a lot of data: Over 1.7 million data points a day or more than 50 million data points for the month of October alone. There are very clear and well laid out performance calculations that use the data provided so there is no hiding underperformance. Penalties for non-delivery are punitive as befits a critical service such as this. These data provisions must be fully automated and are thus are ideal for a vertically integrated platform like Arenko’s. The assets under Arenko’s control are performing exceptionally well: 100% availability and zero penalties for underperformance. Some statistics: Arenko’s average deviation from target power is 0.02% and the maximum deviation the Company has seen 0.9%. Penalties start at 3% deviation and a single data point of more than 7% deviation causes a zero payment penalty for the service period.

Rebalancing the rebalancing asset

As mentioned above, the service is a one-sided, low frequency response only, which means Arenko is only discharging power. To be available for this service, the asset must always be able to provide 15 minutes of contracted power. The service must be delivered continuously over 24 hours so to stay in for an entire delivery period, assets must manage their state of charge (SOC). The service allows rebalancing power, however these charging schedules must be done in half hour blocks and communicated to the control room at least an hour ahead of time. Initially, Arenko set up a simple automation logic with a target SOC that would automatically schedule the required charge volume if Arenko dropped below a certain SOC. Arenko has now started to optimise this charging based on pricing opportunities in order to minimise the cost of the energy used to deliver the service. Arenko has already seen 1-2% net revenue increase due to this early optimisation. The first weekend in October, Arenko was paid to charge the system by targeting negative price periods for the rebalancing. This is the dream, and a form of stacking. Negative prices are a sign that there is too much power on the grid and a market signal for participants to take power—Arenko is providing two services to the grid at once. As flexible assets, batteries can respond to this signal and support the network. Even whilst delivering a critical service like Dynamic Containment.

Technically difficult but physically easy

Whilst the response, rebalancing and reporting requirements of this service have their technical challenges and their value is inarguable, assets delivering Dynamic Containment are just not used that much! For the majority of the time, grid frequency deviations are low (the system is not in fault) and because of the shape of the Dynamic Containment response curve, the necessary power volumes are low. This means the batteries charge and discharge, or cycle, very little. Since the start of this service delivery Arenko is seeing an average of 0.23 cycles per day. See graph below of how this cycling compares to previous months when Arenko has been active in combinations of other markets. As you can see even compared to the Sept 19 month in pure FFR the cycling is very low and way below the warranty-linked target of 2.2 cycles per day. It is also worth noting that all the cycling is shallow cycling. Here we define shallow cycling as single charge/discharge actions that account for less than a 50% change in SOC: it’s a simple metric that separates the short, sharp power cycling from the more long high power actions that, for the majority of modern battery chemistry causes slightly more ‘wear’ to the battery cells . The battery is designed to do an even split of both types so again this demonstrates how, in terms of cycling, Dynamic Containment is gentle on the battery and importantly how much cycling capacity there is left for the battery to be doing other things.

Graph showing the average daily cycling of a battery asset for months if different markets

It’s an important service that has already proven its worth

Since the start of the service there have already been 3 major system events in which grid frequency rapidly moved to outside the 0.2Hz range. An example of these events, occurring on Friday 3^rd October, is shown in the graph below. The graph shows the grid frequency (pink) and the asset response (green). This frequency deviation was caused by a fault that caused an interconnector with France to drop 1GW of power off the grid instantaneously (3% of the system at that time). The asset delivered a near-perfect sub-second response and helped the ESO stop and reverse the frequency deviation in seconds. In the end, Arenko helped bring the system back to normal within two minutes of the fault.

Graph showing frequency and response power during system event 3rd of October.

Next steps

Arenko is ready to go with the two-way service (up and down) once the market comes online, and the Company are continuously working to bring more assets into the service and optimise delivery. The key next steps for this service from Arenko’s perspective is the vertical stacking of services alongside Dynamic Containment. As mentioned above, batteries in this service are not used much in terms of cycling. Batteries, if designed and controlled correctly, are incredibly valuable assets capable of providing a variety of services at once. Arenko see huge value to the ESO, and thus to the consumer, in facilitating participation of assets providing Dynamic Containment into other existing markets such as the Balancing Mechanism, in addition to future markets such as voltage support and thermal load management. This stacking has compound benefits of diversifying and increasing revenue streams for battery asset owners and in reducing total costs of balancing services for the ESO, ultimately reducing the cost to the end consumer. Arenko is excited to be on the front line of helping shape future, sustainable and low carbon electricity networks.