Statkraft invests over £100 million in its largest grid stability scheme to date

Statkraft, Europe’s largest generator of renewable energy, has commenced construction of its latest pioneering Greener Grid Park, after committing more than £100 million to deliver the project.

Necton Greener Grid Park will use synchronous compensators to replicate the spinning turbines of a traditional power station. This innovative technology will help keep the lights on in homes and businesses during faults or disturbances on the grid, without requiring traditional fossil-fired power plants to be switched on to maintain a stable frequency of electricity from the grid. 

Once Necton is operational, it will enable more gas fired power stations to be turned off, reducing carbon emissions by the equivalent of taking around 300,000 cars off the road.  It will deliver about 3% of the total inertia Great Britain needs, the same as previously provided by an 800MW gas fired power station – approximately 4 GW.s of inertia.

It will be Statkraft’s largest synchronous compensator scheme to date – over four times the size of the next largest project - and will be the fourth such Greener Grid Park, following Keith (Moray) and Lister Drive (Liverpool), which are operational, and Swansea, currently under construction.

NESO, the National Energy System Operator, has previously identified Norfolk as an area which requires grid stabilisation. Necton Greener Grid Park was awarded a contract to provide stability services by NESO under phase three of its Stability Pathfinder Programme, in 2022. NESO has previously said that the contracts will deliver £14.9bn of savings between 2025 and 2035.

Construction is expected to take around two years.

Kevin O’Donovan, Statkraft’s UK Managing Director, said: “I’m proud that Statkraft is making a significant investment into Great Britain’s energy transition, with a commitment to build our latest innovative grid stability scheme, which will be our largest to date. When operational, Necton Greener Grid Park will increase the deployment of renewable energy to the grid, bringing down bills for consumers and businesses, and reducing carbon emissions for us all.”