Zenobē powers up a world first solution and Europe’s biggest battery at Blackhillock, Scotland
- Europe’s largest battery site, located in Blackhillock, Scotland, has begun operations with Phase 1 of the project now live
- The site is the world’s first battery to provide Stability Services to overcome the challenges of transporting large amounts of offshore wind power to where it is needed
- Zenobē developed, owns and operates the pioneering project which has an initial capacity of 200MW before being increased to 300MW, making the site >30% of installed battery storage capacity in Scotland to date
- The Blackhillock site will lower consumer bills by over £170 million over 15 years. It is a prime example of how innovative UK companies are developing new technical solutions to deliver on Britain’s ambition to be a clean energy superpower.
3rd March 2025 – London, UK
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 two hours.
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.
By integrating this cutting-edge technology, Blackhillock will enhance the reliability of the UK’s growing renewable power system and help reduce consumer bills nationwide. The site is expected to save consumers over £170 million over the next 15 years. It will also prevent approximately 2.6 million tonnes of CO₂ from entering the atmosphere during this period by integrating more wind power onto the transmission network.
Commenting, Zenobē Founder Director James Basden said: “Today marks a critical juncture in Britain’s clean power journey as Zenobē adds over 30% to the capacity of operational battery storage in Scotland. Battery storage has an essential role to play in our transition to renewable energy, so I’m proud that Zenobē and our partners are leading the way by launching Europe’s largest and most technically advanced battery.
“This project has additional importance, with the Blackhillock site being the first transmission connected battery in the world to deliver Stability Services alongside several other crucial services. As the UK steps up the pace on a transition to renewable power, these services are vital if we are to ensure the reliability and affordability of our grid moving forwards.”
Fintan Slye, CEO of the National Energy System Operator, said: “Our 2025 ambition to enable zero carbon operation of Great Britain’s national electricity network is central to NESO’s mission. The delivery by Zenobe of this grid forming battery is a major accomplishment and brings us a step closer to this goal. Battery storage is critical to the future reliability and affordability of the UK grid and pairing it with this grid forming technology can unlock even greater resilience for a net-zero network.”
Energy Minister Michael Shanks said: “”We are wasting no time in delivering clean power by 2030, with the Blackhillock battery site marking the latest milestone in delivering our mission to become a clean energy superpower.
“With every wind turbine put up, solar panel installed, and battery facility constructed, we are protecting families from future energy shocks.
“Battery sites like this are helping store our clean, surplus energy to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels – which will protect households and boost our energy security for good.”
NOTES TO EDITOR
About Zenobē Energy Ltd. (Zenobē):
Zenobē is an EV fleet and grid-scale battery storage specialist, headquartered in the UK. The company began operations in 2017 and now employs >300 FTEs with a wide range of leading skills including electrical engineering, software development, computer sciences and financing.
Zenobē is the leading owner and operator of grid-scale batteries on the GB transmission network and is expanding into Australasia and North America. Zenobē has 735MW/1300MWh of battery storage assets in operation or under construction.
Zenobē has around 25% market share of the UK EV bus sector and supports over 2,000 electric vehicles across 120 depots globally. The company is the largest owner and operator of EV buses in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
For more information, please visit www.zenobe.com/ or follow on LinkedIn.
More information on the project:
To support the construction of phase one, 200MW/400MWh of Blackhillock, Zenobē secured £101m debt financing via a long-term debt facility from a club of five banks. The debt structure includes an accordion facility to debt finance to 100MW, second phase of the project.
Explanation of Stability Services:
Renewable energy sources interact with the electricity grid differently from coal and gas plants. Fossil fuelled power plants deliver certain key grid services, such as short circuit level, reactive power, and inertia, as a by-product of their normal operations. Short circuit level maintains system voltage during a fault. Inertia, which is derived from the kinetic energy stored in rotating turbines, prevents sudden changes in system frequency. Renewable power sources do not provide these services consistently so to decarbonise successfully, it is necessary to find alternative, reliable sources of grid stability – not only in the UK but worldwide.
Calculations to back-up figures:
“making the site 30% of installed battery storage capacity in Scotland to date”
Installed battery storage capacity in Scotland has been calculated using data from Modo Energy’s Asset Operational Database, as of 7th January 2025; totalling 627.5MW. Total share including Blackhillock (300MW) = 300/927.5 = 32%
“The Blackhillock site will lower consumer bills by over £170 million over 15 years”
The consumer savings of £172m reflects savings of £8m from the Stability Pathfinder contract and savings of £164m from providing balancing services and constraint management to the grid and helping reduce price volatility.
The £8m of savings from the Stability Pathfinder assumes that the contract secured for the Blackhillock project will avoid the use of combined-cycle gas turbines (CCGTs) to provide inertia and short circuit level (SCL). We assume CCGT efficiency of 55% and Stable Export Limit of 35%. The average gas price over the 9-10year contract length is assumed to be £40/MWh, which is conservative considering the high price outlook for gas over the next decade.
The £164m of savings from balancing services and constraint management assumes, with degradation over the lifetime considered, the battery cycles twice a day and provides a reasonable level of savings to the control room when compared to the alternative actions that would otherwise been taken. For example, curtailing wind generation during periods of network constraint or more competitively priced offer actions than gas peakers or CCGTS.
“The total capacity of the site will be equivalent to powering >3.1 million homes for 2 hours.”
The number of homes the site can power is calculated by first calculating the annual discharge output of the battery in MW, multiplying thisby the average cycles per day and by the state of health (taking into account degradation). Then, based on the typical household consumption of 2,700 kWh of electricity a year, the average hourly consumption of 0.31KWh is calculated. The annual discharge output of the battery, divided by the hourly average household consumption generates the number of households powered based on the battery’s cycling export.
For Blackhillock at 300MW/600MWh, the annual discharge output of 960,000KWh is divided by the average hourly consumption to deliver a result of 3,114,667 homes. There are 2,509,300 households in Scotland according to Scotland’s census.
“It will prevent approximately 2.6 million tonnes of CO₂ from entering the atmosphere”
The CO2 savings are benchmarked against the following:
> The provision of power and/or Stability Services versus a gas peaking plant (540gCO2e/kWh) or combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) (450g CO2 e/kWh, operating at Stable Export Limit for provision of Stability Services), depending on the time of operation.
The Carbon intensity of imported energy to charge the battery is assumed at the 2024 national average of 150g CO2 e/kWh This is a conservative assumption considering the high penetration of renewable generation and otherwise curtailed power in Scotland when the battery would charge.
For more information read this article > https://www.zenobe.com/insights-and-guides/zenobe-carbon-impact/
