The main purpose of the development
Scotland has ambitious goals for renewable energy. In 2017, the Scottish government set targets of all energy being 50% renewable by 2030 and 100% by 2050. Scotland currently generates 25.4% from renewable sources and exports a great deal of energy to the rest of the UK.
However, renewable energy also brings a series of very hard engineering challenges. These include:
- Frequency and voltage deviations from acceptable legal standards on a regular basis.
- Problematic harmonic distortion from the equipment used to change DC current to AC current from transmission.
- Renewable energy is intermittent. Imagine that energy travels like a river of water. In order for the water to flow and not stall, it needs a constant supply of water to the river. Old generation technologies such as coal fired power plants had an advantage in that they provided a constant stream of energy to that river. This property is called inertia.
The main purpose of the development is to address all the above issues as a service on the National Grid transmission system.
- Energy is passed through the batteries and transformers to rectify the energy flowing in the network to address frequency and voltage issues. Without this, consumers’ electrical items would burn out and so would local supply substations.
- Energy is passed through the batteries and transformers to remove harmonic distortions that would damage consumer and grid infrastructure.
- Batteries provide very large scale near instantaneous exports of energy onto the grid to increase inertia to compensate for the stop start nature of renewable energy.
Without these services, which were previously in part provided by dirty fossil fuel powered diesel generators, (inertia mostly, they were not capable of the other sophisticated services needed for renewable energy), the National Grid will cease to work properly and we can add no more renewable energy to the network, which is absolutely core to Scotland’s future energy independence from the rest of the UK and of course internationally.
Who would initially benefit from the proposal.
Every person who relies on electricity benefits from this infrastructure investment. And it is entirely funded by private capital from private investors. The owners of course make a profit, around 10% of the invested capital. The Scottish government is not able to fund this vital infrastructure investment. The local community would benefit during construction in terms of cafes and accommodation used by the construction crews and engineers.
What benefits would it bring to the local community?
- A reduction in the carbon intensity of energy generated locally.
- A decrease in fossil fuel emissions.
- Increase in business to local companies and cafes/accommodation during the build phase and a very small benefit during operation from the monthly site visits by engineers managing the site.
- An increase in local air quality in comparison with the less desirable diesel fueled generators.
- The ability to store excess renewable energy for local use.
- There will also be direct community benefits.
Part of the reason for the public consultation is to find out what these might be and what is needed. We welcome suggestions of projects that could be funded. In the past, developers have funded projects like solar panels and battery storage for community halls and schools or yearly scholarships for the life of the development, other projects like christmas lighting… we invite your suggestions really, you know what the community needs better than we will.
How long would it take for these benefits to filter through to the community if applicable
The environmental benefits are immediate upon the development going live. The agreed direct community benefits will be in place before the site goes live and is connected to the grid network.
In what way would it “help the UK” to transition to cleaner sources of energy.
This I have answered in response to question 1 above. In short, we need 30GW minimum flexibility and battery conditioning on the grid network to reach 50% renewable energy.
To reach even 85%, we will need to be able to store 30 days total UK energy use, which is over 2000GW of storage plus flexibility, (the ability to turn off or on industrial processes on demand called Demand Side Response), depending on the eventual mix of energy chosen to reach net zero, (wind, solar, currently to be 70% wind, 30% solar). We currently have less than 3GW built or under construction.
In addition to the points addressed above, these battery energy storage stations will store excess energy from renewable generation in the local grid network. This ability to store energy that would otherwise overwhelm the grid, so would be turned off, is vital to the net zero transition.
What will be the maximum height of the structures?
The batteries will be housed inside steel framed barn structures which are in effect identical to agricultural buildings. These can be finished with wood cladding, just like any agricultural building.
Is there a danger to birds and wildlife from any of the structures?
None. There are no moving elements to the battery installation. Unlike diesel generators, there are no emissions and no noise from engines. There will be no net loss of biodiversity as a result of the development. Measures to be agreed will be put in place by experts to actually increase the biodiversity value of the site.
Why has this particular Town been chosen?
In order to connect these power conditioning systems, we need to be adjacent to a grid node or substation that has the capacity to allow the import and export of electricity as a sufficient scale to be profitable and work from an engineering point of view. This town is one of only a handful of locations with grid capacity.
Why has this particular site been chosen?
This is addressed in 8 above. It is the proximity to the grid connection.
What are the potential drawbacks to the community of the planned proposal.
There is of course the minimal visual impact. Disturbance during the short (8 to 12 week) time frame for the build. During operation, the sites are remotely controlled by the National Grid. Other than that, there are none.
