Zenobē has announced today that its Blackhillock battery site in Scotland, the largest in Europe, has begun commercial operations.
The 200MW/400MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) will undergo a second phase of development into next year, with an additional 100MW expected to go live in 2026.
Zenobē, which owns and operates grid-scale batteries on the GB transmission network, sited the Blackhillock BESS between Inverness and Aberdeen to address grid congestion from three nearby offshore wind power plants (the 443MW Viking, 950MW Moray East and 588MW Beatrice offshore wind farms).
Zenobē founder and director James Basden said the project will add over 30% to Scotland’s operational battery capacity, adding: “This project has additional importance, with the Blackhillock site being the first transmission connected battery in the world to deliver Stability Services alongside several other crucial services.”
The Blackhillock project is Europe’s largest transmission-connected battery storage site and will be the first in the world to provide stability services to the National Energy System Operator (NESO). The stability services it will provide include short-circuit level and true synthetic inertia services to help the grid function efficiently and ease network constraints.
Blackhillock is also the first project delivered under the Network Options Assessment (NOA) Stability Pathfinder programme. Stability Pathfinders was created to develop technologies that generate important system characteristics like inertia, first set up to enable National Grid ESO (which has become NESO) to decide where investment into reinforcing the system should be directed, including what sorts of technologies, as well as geographical or grid node locations.
NESO CEO Fintan Slye called delivery of the grid forming battery a “major accomplishment”, adding that the addition of grid forming technology with battery storage “can unlock even greater resilience”.
Wärtsilä supplied its Quantum energy storage systems and GEMS Digital Energy Platform for the project, enabling Zenobē to remotely monitor, operate, and diagnose the equipment, with Wärtsilä vice president Andrew Tang stating that Blackhillock “sets a new standard”.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) delivered the grid connection for the site and EDF Wholesale Market Services is the route to market provider for the battery through its Powershift platform.
Zenobē achieved financial close on the project in early 2023 through a £235 million long-term debt facility from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Rabobank, Santander UK, Siemens Financial Services through Siemens Bank and NatWest.
The loan was the largest project finance facility for battery storage projects to be arranged in Europe, Zenobē claimed, and was part of the owner-operator’s expansion into Scotland where it is aiming for 1.2GW deployment.
The firm has a second large-scale BESS project underway in Scotland, the 300MW/600MWh Kilmarnock South BESS, for which Wärtsilä will again provide its Quantum high energy storage system. In January last year, Zenobē secured £147 million and started construction of the project, which was also designated as an NOA Stability Pathfinder project.
