Independent Engineer for EFR Commissioning Tests

December 2018

Everoze was very excited to act as independent engineer during the National Grid Enhanced Frequency Response (EFR) commissioning tests at three storage projects built by RES. These were Enel’s Tynemouth EFR Project (25MW), Foresight’s Port of Tyne EFR Project (35MW) and TRIG’s Broxburn Bilateral EFR Project (20MW). These projects are all designed to automatically respond to frequency fluctuations on the grid by importing or exporting power with a response time of less than 1 second.

Everoze’s scope was to act as Independent Engineer as defined within the EFR contracts, which required analysis of the commissioning test results, independent confirmation of successful performance and issuing a certificate and report of the results for National Grid.

Robin Redfern, Everoze project manager for this work, comments that; “Whilst on the surface, this sounds like a relatively straightforward task, the high resolution of the test data (100Hz for some tests!) coupled with requirements for the system to perform within a complex service envelope and within 1-second response time, meant that our validation required a detailed analysis in a short time frame. In addition, an in-depth inspection of the hardware used to undertake the test was required. Fortunately, working closely with RES ensured we could discuss the system directly with their experienced engineers which led to a safe, constructive and successful process. Furthermore, the RES’ energy management system, RESolve, deployed at the projects not only provided the consistent, high-resolution data sets we needed to demonstrate performance, but also allowed live detailed, on-screen visualisation of system behaviour and characteristics, providing real-time comfort of successful testing”

Joe Duddy, Principle Electrical Engineer at RES, commented: “It was a pleasure to work with Everoze to get these projects over the line and operating under their respective frequency response contracts. Everoze was flexible to adapting timelines, responsive to queries and comments and thorough with its technical review.”