In February 2021, Statkraft and ABB announced the construction of two synchronous condensers at Lister Driver in Liverpool. The Lister Drive project will provide a range of grid stabilisation services to National Grid ESO as part of a pathfinder project, including inertia, short circuit current and voltage control. Grid stability in the area was previously supported by the Fiddler’s Ferry coal-fired power station which closed in March 2020. The contract with ABB is over ten-years and the £25 million scheme is expected to begin commercial operations in Autumn 2022.

National Grid ESO (“NG ESO”) is actively monitoring inertia on the GB transmission system and evaluating ways to maintain stability through the procurement of inertia services, as part of the Stability Pathfinder project.

Phase 3 of the Pathfinder focuses on increasing inertia and short circuit level (“SCL”) in England and Wales: inertia is the mass of the system used to control frequency, while short circuit level is the amount of current that flows on the system during a fault.

As traditional coal and gas plants are phased out from Britain’s energy system, the transmission system inertia and short circuit levels are falling. Renewable generators like wind and solar connect to the grid in a different way, which doesn’t provide the network the same stabilising properties. So, NG ESO needs to find new providers to help support the system.

NG ESO’s current models predict there will be a further stability requirement beyond Phase 3, which will be the subject of future work. ABB expects the GB market may require as many as 30-40 synchronous condensers.

The Lister Drive site will couple two 67 MVAr synchronous condensers with 40 tonne flywheels that boost the available inertia by a factor of 3.5. Together they will provide together more than 900 MWs of inertia, which represents about 0.5% of the total inertia on the GB electricity system. The project will be the first ABB project anywhere in the world to feature a high-inertia configuration.

The 10-year service contract between ABB and Statkraft will see ABB provide digital condition monitoring solutions and predictive maintenance with a view to avoiding any unplanned downtime.