The Renewables Infrastructure Group has commissioned the 20MW Broxburn energy storage facility in West Lothian, the first utility-scale battery system in Scotland.
RES built and is managing Broxburn 24 hours a day using its Resolve operating system from the company’s control centre in Glasgow. Livingston outfit NRS Group was the main civils contractor during the £1.5m construction phase.
The facility, which will help balance the national grid network, charges during periods of excess power on the grid and saves the electricity for periods of peak demand.
Scottish minister for trade, investment and innovation Ivan McKee said: “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 managing director Rachel Ruffle said: “The use of energy storage will allow for a greater penetration of renewables and can avoid costly grid upgrades.
“We believe that this project will play an important role in demonstrating this and will encourage policy makers and regulators to accelerate the removal of barriers to wider deployment of energy storage in the UK.”