
The three 500MW/1,000MWh BESS projects in Scotland for which Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has made final investment decisions, the largest in Europe, go a long way towards supporting the UK’s net zero ambitions.
That’s according to the company’s UK commercial director Malcolm Paterson, who, along with VP government affairs Rhys Jones, this week spoke to our sister site Energy-Storage.news (Premium access article).
The company reached final investment decision (FID) on its Coalburn 2 and Devilla BESS projects last week, the second and third of a three-project portfolio totalling 1.5GW/3GWh, coming online between 2026 and 2028.
“These projects go a long way to supporting the UK’s ambition to net zero and to reducing costs for consumers and shore up energy security,” Paterson said, saying they would help alleviate curtailment issues arising because of huge wind resources in Scotland for which there isn’t transmission infrastructure to transport southwards.
“Location is the key bit for batteries that are transmission-connected as these are. They are at a sensitive location, on the B5 boundary. There aren’t local markets as such, but instead of curtailing wind the National Energy System Operator (NESO) can now charge our BESS via the Balancing Mechanism (BM). The BM and intraday trading will be the main routes to market (RTM) for the projects.”
The full interview, which goes into detail on the procurement and financing process and various partners involved in the projects, as well as Paterson and Jones’ views on imminent UK energy market reforms, is available with a subscription to Energy-Storage.news Premium.