Kraken and EDF join forces to unleash Europe's biggest battery
Global utilities operating system Kraken now provides control and dispatch services to half of UK’s grid-scale batteries
EDF Energy to trade energy from 400MWh Blackhillock site in Scotland
Project at Zenobe-owned battery system forecast to bring down consumer bills by £170 million over 15 years
Keith/London, 4th March 2025 - Europe’s largest battery site is to run on Kraken – the operating system revolutionising global utilities.
EDF Energy will trade power from the 200MW / 400MWh Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) at Blackhillock in Moray, Scotland. The site is owned by Zenobē, UK leaders in battery storage development.
The groundbreaking project marks an important milestone for Kraken. It now manages 50% of the UK’s grid-scale batteries, with a further 4.2GW contracted.
Kraken’s platform will support EDF’s energy trading by managing the control and dispatch of energy.
Advanced machine learning enables it to maximise the use of solar and wind energy, for a faster, cheaper and more reliable transition to a renewable energy system. It also provides alerting and data services for battery sites.
The project aims to address stability issues created by intermittent renewable generation in a cost-effective way. It will be expanded to 300MW by next year, enough to supply 3.1 million homes, more than every household in Scotland. This is expected to lower consumer bills by £170 million and abate 3.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over the next 15 years.
Charlotte Johnson, General Manager, Infrastructure Flex at Kraken says: “Grid-scale batteries are a crucial part of the reliable, renewable energy system of the future. We are working with terrific partners in EDF and Zenobē, and transforming the grid to make full use of the cheapest energy available - from the wind and sun - to bring down bills for everyone.”
James Basden, Zenobē Co-Founder and Director, says: “Today marks a critical juncture in Britain’s clean power journey as Zenobē adds over 30% to the capacity of operational battery storage in Scotland. Battery storage has an essential role to play in our transition to renewable energy. Integrated with Kraken's innovative platform, Blackhillock will be Europe's largest and most technically advanced battery. It will also be the first transmission connected battery in the world to deliver Stability Services, a vital solution if we are to continue the transition to renewable power at speed and scale.”
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About Kraken
Kraken is the world’s only proven, end-to-end platform for utilities’ digitalization and transformation, trusted by global energy giants like EDF Energy, E.ON Next, Octopus Energy, Origin and Tokyo Gas.
Headquartered in London and New York, Kraken manages over 60 million accounts, over 40 GW of power – from off-shore wind to grid-scale batteries – and over 250,000 consumer devices such as electric cars and charging stations.
The platform’s advanced data, AI and machine learning capabilities automate much of the energy supply chain to allow outstanding service and efficiency. These advances have redefined the utilities sector, driving a 30-fold increase in new product innovations for partners, top consumer rankings and hundreds of millions of dollars in operational savings.
Kraken’s cloud-based architecture is uniquely adaptable and scalable, proven by an unparalleled track record in seamless, extremely fast on-time migrations and enabling its successful expansion into water and other verticals.
About Zenobē Energy Ltd. (Zenobē):
Zenobē is an EV fleet and grid-scale battery storage specialist, headquartered in the UK. The company began operations in 2017 and now employs >300 FTEs with a wide range of leading skills including electrical engineering, software development, computer sciences and financing.
Zenobē is the leading owner and operator of grid-scale batteries on the GB transmission network and is expanding into Australasia and North America. Zenobē has 735MW/1300MWh of battery storage assets in operation or under construction.
Zenobē has around 25% market share of the UK EV bus sector and supports over 2,000 electric vehicles across 120 depots globally. The company is the largest owner and operator of EV buses in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
For more information, please visit www.zenobe.com/ or follow on LinkedIn.
