20MW battery storage facility opens in Scotland.

Scotland’s first utility-scale battery facility has now opened in West Lothian.

Built and managed by Renewable Energy Solutions (RES) and owned by The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG), the 20MW Broxburn Energy Storage facility provides services to National Grid.

It charges when there is excess capacity on the Grid so energy can be saved for periods of peak demand and help to balance the network.

Scotland’s Minister for Trade, Investment and Innovation, Ivan McKee, who toured the facility yesterday (September 12) said: ‘I am very pleased to have the chance to open the Broxburn Energy Storage project today, which is Scotland’s first sub-second response energy storage project.

‘A welcome addition to Scotland’s low carbon energy system, projects such as this one can increase system flexibility and create opportunities for the further decarbonisation of Scotland’s economy.’

RES say that as well as being the largest battery storage facility in Scotland, it is also the fastest, meaning it can ‘respond to times of national need in mere milliseconds.’

Rachel Ruffle, RES’ Managing Director, added: ‘Energy storage can play a large role in supporting the transition to a secure, low carbon, low-cost energy system. The use of energy storage will allow for a greater penetration of renewables and can avoid costly grid upgrades – leading to cost benefits for all consumers.

‘We believe that this project will play an important role in demonstrating this and will encourage policymakers and regulators to accelerate the removal of barriers to wider deployment of energy storage in the UK.’

Richard Crawford of TRIG, said: ‘This is an exciting day for us. Broxburn is our first investment in battery storage and also one of the UK’s first utility scale batteries. As the installed base of renewables generation continues to increase, energy storage infrastructure projects like Broxburn are becoming increasingly important in balancing intermittent generation and in turn delivering a better service and cost to consumers.’

RES believe energy storage systems could save the Grid £200m a year.

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