The UK energy storage market is turning the corner!

Recently, according to a research report released by British consulting firm Cornwall Insight, after the long-term poor performance of the UK energy storage market, the country's battery energy storage system revenue will rebound in 2026.

In the report, the company expects annual revenue for battery energy storage systems lasting two hours to grow from about £96 /kW ($123.43 /kW) in 2025 to £108 /kW in 2026, with similar growth for other long-term battery energy storage systems. Cornwall Insight said this was due to an increase in wholesale electricity prices, increased price volatility, and an increase in the installed capacity of renewable power generation facilities.

Joe Camish, principal analyst at Cornwall Insight, said: "After a challenging period for UK battery storage owners and developers, we expect battery storage revenues to recover over the next two years. This will be encouraging news for investors and owners of energy storage systems, boding well for a more robust and sustainable battery storage investment in the next decade. The data model we have built highlights this, projecting increased volatility in wholesale electricity prices over the next few years and projecting revenue levels for energy storage systems to remain higher than current levels."

According to Modo Energy's analysis, UK-operated battery energy storage system revenue peaked in August this year, and the report claims that so far, UK-operated battery energy storage system revenue reached a new high of £250 /MW on August 21, 2024.

So far in 2024, the UK has had 147 hours of negative electricity prices, 44 hours more than in the whole of 2023. Modo Energy predicts that negative electricity prices in the UK will be 188 hours this year, and the increase in negative electricity prices will also promote the growth of battery energy storage system revenue.

In addition, Modo Energy claimed in the report that on August 21, the UK-operated battery storage system provided more than 600MW of electricity to the grid through the balancing mechanism (BM), which in addition to receiving frequency response revenue from electricity wholesale service, also increased its electricity price to £47 /MW.