Zenobē announced today that his Blackhillock battery ice site in Scotland, the largest in Europe, has started commercial activities.
The 200 MW/400MWH Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) will undergo a second development phase until next year, with an additional 100 MW expected live in 2026.
Zenobē, who owns and operates schedule batteries on the GB transmission network, placed the Blackhillock Bess between Inverness and Aberdeen to tackle schedule congestion of three nearby offshore wind energy plants (the 443mw Viking, 950 MW Moray East and 58mw).
The founder and director James Basden van Zenobē said that the project will add more than 30% to the operational battery capacity of Scotland, and adds: “This project is extra interest, where the Blackhillock site is the first transmission -connected battery in the world to provide various other crucial services.”
The Blackhillock project is the largest battery storage location in Europe and will be the first in the world to provide stability services to the National Energy System Operator (NESO). The stability services that it will offer include the short -circuit level and real synthetic inertia services to help the network function efficiently and to facilitate network restrictions.
Blackhillock is also the first project delivered under the Network Options Assessment (NOA) Stability Pathfinder program. Stability pathfinders is made to develop technologies that generate important system characteristics such as slowness, first set up to enable National Grid ESO (which has become Neso) to decide where investments should be aimed at strengthening the system, including which types of technologies, as well as geographical or grid node locations.
Neso CEO Fintan Slye called the delivery of the grid -forming battery a “big performance”, adding that the addition of networking technology with battery storage “can unlock even greater resilience”.
Wärtsilä supplied his quantum energy storage systems and gems digital energy platform for the project, allowing Zenobē to remotely monitor, operate and diagnose the equipment, with Wärtsilä Vice -President Andrew Tang that determines that Blackhillock determines a new standard “.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSSen) supplied the Grid Connection for the site and EDF Wholesale Market Services is the route to market provider for the battery via his PowerShift platform.
At the beginning of 2023, Zenobē achieved financial closure of the project through a £ 235 million long -term debt facility of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Rabobank, Santander UK, Siemens Financial Services via Siemens Bank and Natwest.
The loan was the largest project financing facility for battery storage projects that had to be arranged in Europe, claimed Zenobē, and was part of the expansion of the owner-operator to Scotland, where it strives for 1.2 GW implementation.
The company has a second large-scale BESS project going on in Scotland, the 300 MW/600MWH Kilmarnock South Bess, for which Wärtsilä will once again offer its quantum-high energy storage system. In January last year, Zenobē insured £ 147 million and started the construction of the project, which was also designated as a NOA Stability Pathfinder project.
