Four engineering and building firms have been appointed to support the roll-out of three new multimillion-pound battery energy storage system (BESS) facilities being built in Scotland and Surrey
The schemes, which total around £50m and will begin construction over the next 18 months, will be spearheaded by Root-Power, a developer of BESS facilities to help the UK transition to a cleaner energy system, as part of the government’s Clean Power 2030 reforms.
The first of Root-Power’s three BESS schemes will be built at Dounreay near Thurso in Scotland and will generate a 34-megawatt (MW) capacity. The developer has appointed Steve Morgan Associates based in South Wales to provide civil and structural engineering consultancy to deliver the design foundations, layouts, drainage and other key aspects of the site infrastructure needed to assist the main building contractors.
Birmingham-based civil engineering and building contractor, Hedigan Construction, has secured the contract to support the second Root-Power BESS project in Caterham near Surrey. It will have a 12MW capacity and is expected to supply power to around 24,000 homes once operational.
The final BESS scheme will be located in the Broomloan area of Glasgow, which will deliver a 50-megawatt (MW) capacity once completed. Root-Power is currently in the process of procuring a UK-based civil engineering contractor to provide hands-on delivery of the project, including site preparation, trenching, ducting and enabling works.
Teesside industrial electrical power solutions provider, Engineering Power Solutions (EPS) and London-based electrical engineering company, RJ Power, have been awarded contracts across all three schemes.
EPS will provide the design and technical expertise, engineering consultancy and the critical safety support needed, whilst RJ Power, which is part of the Ipsum Group, will provide the electrical infrastructure by designing and building the connections required to link all three sites to the grid.
Neil Brooks, managing director at Root-Power, says: “We awarded major BESS contracts to these four building and engineering firms because of their proven experience, expertise and practical approach to delivering grid connections across BESS facilities of this size.
“Having the right partners in place to oversee the design, technical and site-specific requirements across each scheme is essential to allowing them to become fully operational on the grid.”
“Projects such as this represent an important step forward for us as a business as we scale our BESS portfolio and contribute to strengthening the UK’s energy infrastructure. Battery storage systems play a critical role in enabling the successful transition to a more flexible, low-carbon grid whilst safeguarding energy supply to thousands of businesses and homes.”