Independent developer Balance Power has scored planning permission for a 29.9MW battery storage project in Coylton, East Ayrshire.
The Coylton battery energy storage system (BESS) project will comprise 18 battery units and cover 2.67 hectares of land south of the Coylton electricity substation. The storage facility is expected to be operational by summer of next year.
Balance Power submitted its planning application in November 2023. The East Ayrshire Council approved the project on the condition that its construction begin within three years of the consent and that the consent will last 40 years from either the date the project is connected to the grid or 18 months after development begins—whichever happens first.
The council also stipulated that within six months of construction completion, Balance Power must implement the landscape planting plan as put forward in its planning application.
The developer said that planning consent was achieved after an extensive community consultation process. As part of its community benefit package, Balance Power has installed rooftop solar PV at the Ochiltree Community Hub, a registered charity.
Connections manager at Balance Power Oli Petterson described this as “a targeted but impactful way that we can contribute to the incredible work being done there.”
The Coylton storage project is Balance Power’s second BESS consent this year. In April, planning permission was granted for a 49.5MW BESS in Staffordshire. The developer says it has over 2GW of projects under development and that it has taken 36 clean energy projects through to planning consent, creating 531.9MW of capacity to support the grid.
National Grid has identified Coylton as an area in need of grid stabilisation, and as such it is also host to a BESS project brought forward by Statkraft. The Greener Grid Park, adjacent to the Coylton substation, will provide stability via grid-forming converters attached, which always stay in ‘grid-forming’ mode, meaning they inherently resist changes in voltage and frequency on the electricity grid.
Documents on the East Ayrshire Council planning portal show that Statkraft issued a screening opinion request in February this year for an extension of its existing Coylton BESS site.
Statkraft is looking to increase the capacity of the site, which is currently under construction, from 50MW to 100MW by increasing the number of battery units on the site from 24 to 38. The planning authority stated that an environmental impact assessment (EIA) is not needed.
