In Stability Market Round 2, all BESS submissions failed at the technical assessment stage, while synchronous condensers and open cycle gas turbines took 7.3 GVAs of contracts, market intelligence and analytics firm Modo Energy said.
March 2, 2026
The UK National Energy System Operator (NESO) awarded no contracts to battery storage projects in the Stability Market Round 2, despite the recent Stability Pathfinder which proved the technology’s capabilities in grid-forming and system stability. 
In Stability Market Round 2, all battery energy storage system (BESS) submissions failed at the technical assessment stage, while synchronous condensers and open cycle gas turbines (OCGTs) took 7.3 GVAs of contracts, market intelligence and analytics firm Modo Energy said. 
Some of the failed batteries are already operational with active NESO Stability Pathfinder contracts, added Modo Energy analyst Zachary Jennings, posting the company’s analysis on LinkedIn. 
That is despite NESO having spent £323 on its Stability Pathfinder programme which set out to show how newer technologies like BESS could provide inertia and other grid stability services which have historically been provided by gas plants. The Stability Market is the regular, long-term procurement mechanism for such stability services. 
Related:Revera reaches FID on 400MWh Scotland BESS; GE Vernova providing BESS, Danske to optimise
Owner-operator Zenobē has been the leading player in deploying BESS within the Pathfinder scheme, with two projects online: the Blackhillock and Kilmarnock South projects. 
Comments from industry sources on Modo’s post showed frustration and concern at the lack of BESS awards despite the Pathfinder programme. 
Multiple commenters suggested NESO favours synchronous/thermal assets over proven zero-carbon alternatives, with eligibility criteria appearing ‘written around incumbents rather than outcomes’, according to one. 
However, one commenter said that NESO was being ‘reassuringly conservative’ when it came to procuring inertia, considering how critical the services are to a stable grid. 
New technical specifications around things like 'fixed H constants' (requiring participants to commit to specific, non-variable inertia values for their grid-forming technologies during the tender and connection phases) may have been behind the assessment failures, as these were not in Round 1, Jennings said. Another commenter said Round 1 had criteria prioritising sustained inertia, fault contribution and system strength against tighter technical thresholds.
Jennings said that raising thresholds and requirements was good, but that these needed to be clearly communicated to incumbents before design parameters were locked in. 
One commenter drew parallels to solar project development in the UK, where sub-optimal technologies were being prioritised because of institutional bias. In both cases, the common thread is a policy framework that hasn't kept pace with what the technology can now deliver, they said.
Related:Trina Storage commits to investment in Gore Street’s EU BESS fund
System integrator Wärtsilä provided the BESS and PCS for both of Zenobē’s Stability Pathfinder BESS projects, and spoke to our sister Energy-Storage.news for an article on grid-forming technologies as part of its recent Energy Storage Report 2026, which you can download here. 
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Cameron Murray
Senior Reporter, Informa
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