The Coupar Angus Substation is located around 700m west of the Markethill BESS site, and this proximity to the grid is the key reason for the site being most suitable. The Development would be connected via a buried cable to the Coupar Angus substation. This means there is no requirement to run cables a long distance from the site, which would cause disruption.

The location of the Development benefits from a range of factors including proximity to a viable grid connection, existing farm access, current land use, and a lack of flood risk and environmental designations.

The Development is low lying and, given its small footprint, no significant impact on agricultural land use is expected. The Site is relatively flat and is surrounded by agricultural land.

The Development will be located at a suitable distance from any residential buildings to protect the amenity of the occupants.

The Development itself does not generate electricity. However, introducing BESS in the energy mix or renewable generators such as wind and solar allows the Electricity Grid Network to “balance” electrical demands.

BESS are an essential tool in delivering the most efficient and least wasteful use of renewable energy sources, reducing the requirement to use expensive and polluting fossil fuel powered plants, and further diversifying the mix of low carbon technologies supplying our electricity.

The Development is designed to support the flexible operation of the National Grid, and support the decarbonisation of electricity supply. The proposed BESS will provide a flexible source of, and the rapid supply of electricity, when required, to allow the National Grid to regulate electricity supply and demand without recourse to fossil fuel generation. Conversely, the Development will also have the capacity to absorb electricity quickly, which will allow for oversupply issues on the grid to be managed.

Battery Energy storage systems (BESS) can time-shift energy, storing at times of surplus and releasing at times of deficit; helping to drive energy-efficiency.
BESS are used widely as an energy storage technology because of their high energy density and charge/discharge cycle fatigue resistance in comparison to competing technologies. Li-ion batteries use two main ‘modes’ and have a fast response time which makes them suitable for power application in grid-scale deployment. These two modes are:
Mode 1: fast frequency response and grid stability – this mode would keep the battery close to 50% charge, leaving room to charge or discharge as needed to provide support in both directions (i.e. discharge when the grid is low on power, and charge when there is too much power). This process is mandated by National Grid and follows very strict parameters which are monitored 20x per second.
Mode 2: Energy Cycling i.e. charging and discharging – the battery very rarely hits 100% charge or 0% charge, as doing so shortens the battery life. Batteries typically operate in the range of 10% – 90% charge. An example of a 2-cycle day would look like the following:

• 04:00 – charge from 10% to 90%
• 08:30 – discharge from 90% to 10%
• 14:00 – charge from 10% to 90%
• 17:00 – discharge from 90% to 10%

Energy storage systems can be used as an alternative to existing back-up generators such as diesel-based systems to improve the emissions performance of an industrial or commercial facility. Providing a modern, lower carbon approach to ensuring continuity of supply in the event of an external power interruption.
By helping to balance energy supply with demand, and greatly improve the efficiency of renewable sources and allow maximal renewable energy penetration in the national energy mix.
This passes through inverters and converted to alternating current (AC) for export to the grid from the onsite substation.

The battery units will comprise of Lithium-ion batteries and the BESS would be equipped with high level monitoring, automatic alarms and fire suppression systems. The project  would be UL9540a standard certified, which ensures that safety standards are appropriate for  Insurance and Fire Mitigation Professionals. 

A typical safety system installed at a BESS,, depending on the final technology provider, may include:

• Control software to monitor key components in the system and ensure operation within safe parameters, with access to voltage, current, temperature, and multiple types of fault detection;
• If operation is outside normal conditions of voltage, current, temperature the above system to gradually fold back power or under severe conditions (e.g., ground fault) immediately cease operation to prevent hazard;
• Video surveillance security system could be available to provide remote video of conditions inside and/or outside the containers;
• Containers are designed to operate or fail safely under extreme environmental conditions.
• Each battery rack comes with standalone fire detection/suppression system with aerosol fire suppression agent. Then all the racks are interconnected to a central fire detection system, that in an event of fire it will notify our 24/7 security company and our 24/7 Operations team.

In addition to the above, integrated on-board fire detection will be installed which activates on the detection of smoke or heat, and portable fire extinguishers will be installed in key points at the site.

There is a normal temperature range within which the batteries at a BESS need to operate, typically with a target temperature of 23°C, with a minimum of 0 °C and a maximum of 55°C.
Temperatures are managed by a heater / chiller system on each battery cubicle which automatically heats or cools the units to maintain the target temperature. Outside these temperature ranges, BESS systems can still operate, but their batteries will degrade faster. To avoid this, independent control systems shut down any battery units whose temperature deviates from its normal temperature limits.

Examples of how this might occur could include a scenario where a heating element fails, causing temperature to drop too low, or heavy energy cycling (sequential charging and discharging cycles with no breaks) causes battery modules to generate heat.

Extreme weather is unlikely to impact operations (the heater/chiller is rated to manage conditions from -30°C to +55°C)..
For less demanding storage purposes, the batteries are much more resilient to temperature changes, although there is still manufacturer guidance to be followed (-40°C to +60°C without heater/chiller is allowed for storage).

This website has been created to facilitate public engagement and provide you with further information on the project. Your feedback and views are important to the project development. There are a few different options for submitting your comments and queries:

• Write to Dan Grierson, The Energy Workshop Limited, 32 Park Cross Street, Leeds, LS1 2QH
• Telephone: 07545 336 960 
• Email dan@theenergyworkshop.co.uk 
• Use the Comments ‘widget’ on the Contact Us page