Powering progress on SSE’S first battery storage project
SSE Group is continuing to deliver its £12.5billion Net Zero Acceleration Programme. Six months ago SSE Energy Solutions' Distributed Energy division unveiled details of our first battery storage project at Salisbury in Wiltshire.
The announcement was a key marker for us, and demonstrates our ambitions to help deliver essential balancing services to the energy system.
The project is part of SSE’s ambitious capital investment plan to accelerate progress to net zero in its role as the UK and Ireland’s clean energy champion.
SSE purchased the project development rights for its first 50MW battery storage asset on a consented site in Wiltshire, from Harmony Energy Limited. It plans to bring the project to financial close in the new year, and then begin constructing the battery storage facility at Salisbury during 2022, for an expected energisation in the summer of 2023.
With work on the project getting underway we caught up with Hugh Maguire, Senior Project Development Manager.
Hugh said: “Since we announced the purchase of the site in the summer, we’ve been making good progress with the project. It is a first for SSE and shows the breadth and depth of its expertise when it comes to powering net zero. There’s rightly a lot of media focus on some of our big offshore and onshore wind farms but the role of technologies like battery storage is a crucial one when it comes to balancing the grid and paving the way for society to move towards net zero.
“It’s been great to get on site at our Salisbury project. Since the summer we’ve been refining the project and making improvements to the planning, grid and land arrangements which are all crucial steps towards completing it. We are working with the supply chain to set up framework agreements to deliver for our portfolio. We're expecting to reach agreement with a preferred bidder for Salisbury in Q1 2022."
Once built, this battery will benefit from the remote monitoring and trading services we now offer in distributed energy through the SSE Enhance platform. The platform will integrate with the site control and monitoring systems and also allow smart trading to maximise the value of these assets.
SSE Energy Solutions plays a major part in the emerging flexible energy system and provides key services to enable users to benefit from new ways to optimise and manage their low carbon energy use.
We do this by adopting a ‘whole system approach’ through investing in, building and connecting localised, flexible energy assets to accelerate the path to net zero and create a more resilient energy system for the long-term.
