The first utility-scale battery facility in Scotland has been commissioned.  The 20MW Broxburn Energy Storage installation was built and managed by RES and owned by The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG). Livingston-based NRS Group were the main civils contractor during the £1.5 million construction phase.

Rachel Ruffle, RES managing director, said: “The use of energy storage will allow for a greater penetration of renewables and can avoid costly grid upgrades – leading to cost benefits for all consumers. We believe that this project will play an important role in demonstrating this and will encourage policy makers and regulators to accelerate the removal of barriers to wider deployment of energy storage in the UK.”

Richard Crawford, director, infrastructure at InfraRed Capital Partners, investment manager for TRIG, said: “This is an exciting day for us. Broxburn is our first investment in battery storage and also one of the UK’s first utility scale batteries. As the installed base of renewables generation continues to increase, energy storage infrastructure projects like Broxburn are becoming increasingly important in balancing intermittent generation and in turn delivering a better service and cost to consumers.”