A week after its acquisition of REstore, utility giant Centrica is again leading the smart grid charge, with plans for a 100MW battery in Ireland, an expansion of its Hive smart home platform into Italy, and the signing of its first participant in its Cornwall Local Energy Market (LEM) trial in England. The small LEM storage technology is a microcosm of what Centrica is planning for the grid-scale projects. Using batteries to store power from renewables, when their generation output is greater than useful demand, the storage can be used at a later time, when demand outpaces supply. This should help the utility save money, by not needing to fire up the relatively expensive reserve generation assets – which tend…