Independent Renewable Energy Company Res will manage the 500 MW/1GWH Coalburn Battery Energy Storage System (Bess), which will be one of Europe’s largest.
The Coalburn Bess facility is developing by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and Alcemi at a former coal mining site in Lanarkshire, Scotland.
Under an agreement signed between the two, RES will be responsible for the assets of the site.
The site will be built in two phases, with the first, the 500 MW Coalburn 1, which is expected to be online later this year. Coalburn 2, which will form the remaining 500 MW capacity, is expected to follow in 2027.
When the 2-hour Coalburn 1 is taken into use, CIP will divest a 50% ownership of alternatives investor AXA im Alts. SSE Energy Markets will optimize both Bess assets.
Coalburn will be one of the largest Bess assets in Res’ Global Services Portfolio, which, according to the company, currently contains more than 43 GW of wind, solar, storage and green hydrogen over 1,300 locations worldwide.
CIP has a third Bess project of 500 MW in Scotland, the Devilla project near FIFE.
With the amount of wind generation in and around Scotland, it is an attractive area for Bess -Activa, because grid limitations make it difficult to transport high quantities of generation elsewhere and on days when the wind generation is high, the power plants are paid to switch off in order not to overwhelm the grid.
Investors were broadly relieved last week to hear the news that the government will not follow the route to set up zonal electricity markets in the United Kingdom.
In theory, this could have lower conversion costs in Scotland and prevent the need for transmission -Buildout. However, it would have made investments in Scotland more risky for developers, who would have less profit due to the sale of electricity, which would be at a much lower price in areas with a high generation such as Scotland.
Instead, the government will deliver a Reformed national price determination plan, leaning heavily Reform of the transmission -network use of System (TNUOS) coststhe Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP) Commissioned by the National Energy System Operator (NESO) and storage of battery energy.
Spend against News for energy storage Before the decision, CIP’s British commercial director Malcolm Patterson said that, although a phased approach to market reform was preferred, the economy of generating income with BES’s means that the refurbishment of the market would have relatively small financial implications for storage. The Full conversation is available With premium access to News for energy storage.
CIP agreed a 15-year capacity market agreement for Coalburn 1.
