IPP Matrix Renewables is working with energy company EDF to optimize its 500MW/1,000MWh Eccles BESS in Scotland.
EDF will provide route-to-market (RTM) services and optimization for the Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project once it becomes operational.
Commercial operations are expected to commence in summer 2027 and will be Matrix’s first standalone BESS in the UK, headquartered in Madrid.
Matrix has acquired Eccles and another Scotland BESS of identical size, named Kilmarnock, in April 2025. It then has appointed Tesla as a BESS and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) supplier. for the Eccles project in December.
Matrix said it is located along key transmission corridors between Scotland and England. Although GB has only one national electricity price, helping to resolve regional imbalances is reimbursed through the Balancing Mechanism (BM). And the biggest regional imbalance on the electricity grid is the abundance of wind energy in Scotland, but most of the demand is in England, and the insufficient transmission infrastructure to transport it south.
EDF will use its PowerShift platform to optimize the shipment of the BESS.
The companies have not disclosed the structure of the optimization deal, but the most common in the UK market is a minimum revenue share, where an optimizer or off-taker offers the project owner a minimum level of revenue, with a revenue share above that minimum. However, the the industry is starting to move beyond tolls and other structuresan executive at Danske Commodities told us last month.
Optimization and off-take agreements are often necessary to bring projects to a final investment decision (FID), but this gives more negotiating power to the off-taker or optimization supplier.
