Location

The BESS is located near Ardochrig, within the existing Whitelee Windfarm boundary.

Current Stage

The site is currently under construction and is intended to be fully operational by June 2021.

Project History

The Whitelee BESS 50MW project received Planning Consent under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 and was approved by the Scottish Ministers in June 2019.  Construction began in March 2020 and has proceeded well.

Project Description

ScottishPower Renewables aims to install 1.5 gigawatts (GW) of energy storage technology by 2030; as we install more renewable generation on the network, we need to ensure that we can keep the electricity grid stable and secure during periods where the energy produced by renewable sources doesn’t match the demand. Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) allow excess generation capacity to be stored until it is needed.

By locating this BESS within the existing Whitelee Windfarm, we can ensure that more electricity generated by the windfarm is used and provides stability and security to the local electricity network without installing a lot of new infrastructure.

Contact

The Project Team can be contacted directly by email

Project Documents

Please click on the link below to see the Whitelee BESS planning documents on the Energy Consents Unit website:

• Whitelee BESS (ref: ECU00000729)