Re: 1GW (sic) Battery Energy Storage Systems

On 26/11/2024 03:15, john larkin wrote:

Having electricity used to be normal.

UK power supply is generally way more stable than US. However, there is a huge imbalance between where electricity is generated and it is used. The North-South 400kV interconnectors are often maxed out at peak times.
The public consultation was yesterday. It really is 1GW injection power and 4 hours so a 4GWhr battery farm (40x bigger than the largest system currently in the UK and being built by a startup with no track record!).
It will have ~900 container modules of batteries as close together as they dare (half the US regulation spacing) and in double lines of 50.
SO that makes me wonder how big is a 1GW transformer operating at 400kV?
And how much does one cost?
I'm guessing the secondary to handle 2500A will have to be (30A = 2mm^2 so 3000A ~ 200mm^2 = 16mm diameter) and at a 40:1 stepdown the low side will have to be 40x bigger cross section 6x linear size hollow core?). Are these guesses approximately right? How many turns on each?
How much soft iron core does it require (approximately)?
The location chosen is very cunning. They will get paid not to produce electricity by intercepting the payments (to not produce electricity) currently made to wind farm owners in Scotland and off the NE coast.
We don't have any worthwhile national infrastructure planning to speak of and so this national level storage facility will be  approved by a county council planning department (any one of them if built would immediately be the largest BESS in the world). 3 within 20 miles of me.
--
Martin Brown