West Sussex County Council has issued a tender (ITT) for a 16MW/32MWh battery energy storage system (BESS), with a two-hour run time.
The ITT is seeking private and public sector organizations to provide pre-construction services agreement (PCSA) services for the Halewick Lane BESS phase 3 project.
The proposed BESS will be built on the site of the previously abandoned North Sompting Waste Management Site, near Worthing. The PCSA contract will involve “designing, risk assessing, planning and completing all necessary tender information to provide a fixed price for the procurement and construction” of the project, West Sussex Council said, as part of a two-phase design and construction contract.
Under the current schedule, the project is expected to begin construction in July 2025 and enter service in the first quarter of 2027. It will represent approximately £23.6 million of capital expenditure.
The Halewick Lane project has been in progress for several years and has seen a number of changes and delays. Solar energy portal already referred to the project in 2018, when planning and decisions on the project were expected the following year.
The original plan was for a 1-hour, 24 MW BESS project, but the council changed course after consultation with “a range” of independent consultants.
The original plan also was to use second-hand batteries recycled from electric vehicles, rather than new systems, according to a September 2024 report to the Communities, Highways and Environment Oversight Committee. This plan changed “when government support for the umbrella project was withdrawn.”
The September report, written by Wayne Lewis, deputy director of environment and public protection, also details the County Council’s ultimately failed attempts to secure direct contractors from the private and public sectors, before opting for an open tender process through this ITT.
Council initially signed a PCSA agreement with a private contractor, but the relationship was terminated after it failed to meet the terms of the contract. A similar deal with “a public sector owned framework” also fell through, after which the Council decided to issue an open tender based on what it called “a clear willingness of the market to work with the County Council work to realize this project. .”
