About the Project
The proposed Lawfield Energy Storage System is located on land close to the proposed Branxton Substation, between Oldhamstocks and Thorntonloch, East Lothian.Click on image to enlarge
The Lawfield proposal will have an installed generating capacity greater than 50MW. As such, the application for planning consent will be submitted by RES to the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit (ECU) under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 (the Electricity Act) and determined by Scottish Ministers. East Lothian Council will be a statutory consultee in the process. We currently expect to submit the Section 36 application around autumn 2024.
Having undertaken initial site feasibility work we are now preparing for more detailed environmental and technical site survey work which will be carried out over the coming months to help inform the design. In line with this, we will shortly be submitting a Screening request to ECU.
What is an Energy Storage System?
Increasing the installed capacity of energy storage is essential to enabling and accelerating the rollout of zero carbon energy to support the UK’s net-zero emissions target.
Renewable energy technologies are needed to replace electricity generation from fossil fuels, however, they generate electricity intermittently depending on weather conditions. This causes problems for the national grid network which must be finely balanced; electrical demand must match electrical generation at all times. If this balance is not achieved, it can lead to blackouts and the failure of grid circuits.
Our electricity system is in a transitionary period to manage these increasingly complex supply and demand needs of the 21st Century, and energy storage systems will play a key part by maintaining this balance.
Energy storage helps support National Grid by storing energy at times when generation exceeds demand and releasing electricity back to the national grid network when demand exceeds generation. Energy storage is also considered the fastest technology for responding to a sudden spike in demand or an abrupt loss of supply. Electricity is not physically generated on site.
RES has been working in the battery energy storage market for a decade and design safe storage projects using proven Lithium iron phosphate technology. RES has developed over 700MW of energy storage projects across the UK and Ireland and currently manage over 600MW of operational storage projects with 24/7/365 monitoring provided from our control centre in Glasgow.