Kingston Council has awarded the planning permission to a development of 98 MW Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) in Leatherhead, Surrey.
The Council granted permission on 24 September 2025, for the Bess and Associated Betabling and Infrastructure Construction, after the project request about a year ago. The case number is 24/02168/Ful.
However, it seems that the project still needs a permission to continue. The full decision document said: “The approved development will not start until the building permit has been granted for the storage system of the battery energy within the border of the Moley Valley District Council.”
This is because the development exceeds two limits of the local government area and it is essential that the works are being carried out in one go, according to the decision document. Kingston’s planning decision will be in three years, which means that the project must be agreed and the construction has started.
Although not announced by the companies involved, the project seems to be part of a seven-project BESS portfolio that the Australia-advised owner-operator Eku Energy was taken over from developer Bluestone Energy earlier this year, a total of 1GW/2GWH.
Eku mentioned a 98 MW Bess in Leatherhead, Surrey, as one of those seven projects. The planning documents never call it the ‘Rye Bess’, but refer to a 98 MW project developed by Bluestone Energy Limited for a site in the city Leatherhead, while Bluestone Energy now calls the Rye Bess in his Dedicated project websiteGive the same site address with both.
