Point and Sandwick Development has applied for planning permission to construct a compact battery energy storage facility in Stornoway.
The development would allow island wind turbines to keep generating during any outages
of the subsea cable. It would also reduce emissions pumped out from the neighbouring
diesel-fuelled power station during outages.
The 25 MW plant comprising of six banks of battery units would be sited on vacant land in front of the SSE power station, at what is aptly called The Battery, at Newton.
The area was used as an artillery emplacement from the 18th to the 20th century, hence the name Battery Point.
“Now, in the 21st century, it is a fitting location for the island's first grid-scale
battery energy storage system,” highlights the Greenspace Agency on behalf of the
trust.
The 25MW facility would be built off the access road to Goat Island, between the main road at Newton and the coastguard station.
In addition to the battery banks, a high voltage electricity substation plus associated infrastructure such as three inverters and six transformers would be required.
Electricity from the transformers would be transmitted to the proposed substation and exported into Scottish and Southern Electricity’s Network’s distribution power grid.
A welfare unit and storage container for parts would also be based at the site which will be named the Battery Point Energy Storage Park.
A four metre high acoustic barrier is proposed to cut down any noise while a three metre high palisade fencing and gates would surround the compound.
The battery project will be owned by Point and Sandwick Development, and will be independent of the neighbouring SSE power station.
The developer says a major benefit is mitigating the type of problems which occurred on the local grid for 11 months after the subsea cable was severely damaged and out of commission in 2020.
That incident required the Stornoway diesel power station to maintain supplies for nearly a year with pollution and carbon emissions rocketing.
“Unfortunately, not only did this result in less renewable energy being produced, but it also substantially increased the volumes of polluting gases being emitted to the atmosphere,” planners are told.
Community wind farms lost millions of pounds in income as a result of the broken link.
Even without the major outage, shorter outages are regularly scheduled by SSE to carrying out grid maintenance works, which requires all Lewis and Harris wind farms to switch off, losing money to community operators.
“The proposed battery project at Battery Point will help stabilise the electricity supply for Lewis and Harris, increase the production of renewable electricity on the island, and increase the extent to which island produced renewable electricity can be consumed locally.
“All profit from the operation of the battery will be reinvested in the islands by the Point and Sandwick Trust,” said the Greenspan Agency.
The trust will also build ten additional car parking spaces for HM Coastguard at the neighbouring coastguard station to help accommodate personnel vehicles at busy times, particularly when responding to significant incidents.
The proposed development will be unstaffed during the operational phase, except for occasional site maintenance visits.
The battery installation will be able to deliver, for periods of up to two hours, as much electricity as the neighbouring, far larger, diesel power station.
The proposed development will have a direct connection to the local electricity grid and will be able to store energy produced on the island, as well as electricity imported from the mainland. Similarly, it will be able to discharge to the local grid, providing energy for homes and businesses on the island of Lewis and export to the mainland says the developer.
Planning permission sought to build community owned energy storage facility at Battery Point
6 May 2024
