EDF’s Pivot Power Gets Planning Permission For Next 100Mw Of 2GW UK Bess Pipeline

EDF-owned battery storage developer-investor Pivot Power has secured planning permission for two 50MW/100MWh lithium-ion battery storage sites in the UK.

Located in Sundon, Luton in Southeast England, and Indian Queens, Cornwall in Southwest England, both sites form part of the company’s wider ‘Energy Superhub’ rollout.

Construction at Sundon will start in early 2023, with the aim of connecting it to the existing local substation later in the year. Once complete, a private wire will allow the site to contribute to electric vehicle (EV) charging.

The Indian Queens site will share a grid connection with two other developers, including Renewable Connections. The two companies submitted a joint planning application for the site, and both received permission for the construction of 50MW/100MWh batteries, which are expected to go live in 2024.

Like at Sundon, Pivot Power is planning to develop a private wire once the battery is live, boosting EV charging in Cornwall.

Both follow the rollout of other ‘superhubs’ in the West Midlands and Oxford by Pivot Power, which is targeting 2GW of transmission-connected battery storage and high-volume power connections.

The two new sites will largely mirror the two West Midlands sites, where Pivot is working with Wärtsilä to develop two 50MW/100MWh battery storage assets along with EV charging infrastructure. Work kicked off on the first of these sites in Sandwell in December.

The Oxford Energy Superhub is a broader project, including hybrid battery storage combining vanadium redox flow battery tech with lithium-ion batteries, low carbon heating, smart energy management technology and EV charging. As part of this, it fully energised the UK’s largest flow battery, in December 2021.

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