Grid-scale storage pioneers Penso Power have won their 18-month appeal to build a 100MW-rated battery facility in rural Hampshire.
Accommodated close to Bramley, 12 miles south of Reading and next to Scottish & Southern EN’s substation, will be a possible 250 MWh-plus of on-tap, tradable power, as now permitted by the Planning Inspectorate.
Penso appealed in October 2021 against local Hampshire planners’ refusal to green-light the installation.
It will be built under an investment deal signed by the firm’s CEO Richard Thwaites, pictured, in October 2021 with BW Energy Storage Systems, a division of global combine BW Group.
Under the pact, the multinational provides capital for Penso to build out the pair’s 3GWh pipeline of intended UK utility-scale power hosting. The investors’ chief executive Erik Strømsø sits on Penso’s board.
Expanded from its origins in operating oil tankers, BW Group’s worldwide interests embrace energy distribution from a variety of sources, and from managing floating infrastructure in oil, gas and LPG, to water and solar power.
Penso will build and operate Bramley, with BW Energy Storage Systems as the project joint’s shareholders.
Penso’s breakthrough project was its battery at Minety, Wiltshire, initially intended in its early stages to be rated at 50MW. Shell Europe’s New Energies arm bought Minety in 2019, after Penso opted to double its capacity, making it still Europe’s biggest facility power operating in power storage.
Shell-owned Limejump’s trading from the Wiltshire plant began in July 2021. Further expansion will see Minety grow to 150 MW/266 MWh.
Penso Power CEO Richard Thwaites was Limejump’s chairman until its purchase by Shell. With a background in investment banking, Thwaites is a member of Ofgem`s Capacity Markets Advisory Group. John Wybrew, Penso’s chairman, has in the past sat on the boards of Ofgem, National Grid and British Gas.
Thwaites said the Hampshire project should enter commercial operation next year.
“Bramley is an important project in our pipeline, and we expect it to play an important role in supporting UK energy security and ensuring the resilience of our electricity system”, the Penso boss added.
It would be interesting to know what type of batteries will be used; perhaps a mix of Li-ion and redox flow batteries like the installation at the Oxford battery storage project?