Cutting-edge technology going on trial in Leighton Buzzard could save UK £3bn a year and spread around the world

A trial of the largest battery in Europe, which proponents hope will transform the UK electricity grid and boost renewable energy is due to start in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire.

The trial of cutting-edge energy storage technology will test new methods of capturing electricity for release over long periods, evening out the bumps and troughs of supply and demand that plague the electricity grid. Finding ways of storing power from wind and solar generation is key to maintaining a constant source of energy.

But storage technology has been difficult to translate from small devices such as batteries and laptops to the enormous scale needed to balance demand and supply on the national grid.

The £18.7m project – of which £13.2m comes from the UK taxpayer – is based at the electricity sub station serving Leighton Buzzard, and will deploy one of the biggest batteries ever constructed, using lithium manganese technology. When finished the battery. When finished the battery should have 6 megawatt capacity battery installation, which will absorb and release energy to meet the demands of the grid. The first results are not expected until 2016.

Andrew Jones, managing director of S&C Electric Europe, one of three companies delivering the project, said that Leighton Buzzard had been chosen as it had the necessary infrastructure to hold the trial, including good grid connections and capacity for a large scale battery installation. He said: "The major grid challenges from the UK's decarbonisation can be met through energy storage's inherent ability to reinforce the network. But currently there are limited large-scale energy storage projects here, leaving a confidence gap. This practical demonstration promises to show the strengths and limitations of storage and unlock its potential as a key technology for the transition to low carbon energy."

If successful, the battery technology and networking knowhow that goes along with it will be spread around the world. The UK alone could save £3bn a year in the 2020s through large scale energy storage, according to research from Imperial College London.

• This article was amended on 30 July 2013. The original suggested that three companies – S&C Electric Europe, Samsung SDI and Younicos – gained £13.2 million directly for the project. In fact UK Power Networks received the cash and commissioned the three companies to deliver the project.