Zenobē, the UK’s leading owner and operator of grid-scale batteries on the GB transmission network, has announced that Europe’s largest battery site, located in Blackhillock, Scotland, has begun commercial operations today.

The Blackhillock site is launching in two phases. Phase 1 comprises of 200MW which is going live today and will be followed by a further 100MW in 2026, making a total of 300MW/600MWh. The total capacity of the site is the equivalent of powering >3.1 million homes, substantially more than all the households in Scotland, for one hour.

Deliberately located between Inverness and Aberdeen to address grid congestion from Viking (443 MW), Moray East (950 MW) and Beatrice (588 MW) offshore wind farms, the project significantly reduces the amount of wasted clean energy and is an important milestone to achieving the UK government’s mission to have a net zero power grid by 2030.

Battery storage plays a critical role in the UK’s net zero transition with over 22GW required as a minimum in the Government’s Clean Power 2030 Plan. As Britain increases its reliance on renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, batteries like Blackhillock will ensure that excess power can be stored and then used during times of increased demand.

In addition to being Europe’s largest battery, the Blackhillock site will be the first in the world to provide Stability Services to the National Energy System Operator (NESO) to make renewable power more secure and reliable. Wärtsilä is supplying its Quantum energy storage system technology and GEMS Digital Energy Platform with SMA grid forming inverters enabling a resilient power system with high power quality. Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) delivered the grid connection required for the site to harness the renewable energy on its transmission network.

EDF Wholesale Market Services will be the Route to Market provider for the site, through its market leading trading platform, Powershift. This platform combined with Zenobē’s battery optimisation experts will build more flexibility into the grid, essential to reducing wind curtailment and accelerating the decarbonisation of the network.

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