TagEnergy activates 200 MWh Tesla Megapack, UK’s largest transmission-connected system

The 100 MW/200 MWh Lakeside project has gone live in the village of Drax, in North Yorkshire, England.
TagEnergy says its Lakeside BESS is in Drax, a village in North Yorkshire (bottom right of image) most famous for the nearby biomass power station (upper left). | Image: Imagery ©2024 Airbus, CNES / Airbus, Maxar Technologies, Map data ©2024/Google Maps

Renewables developer TagEnergy has announced it has energized the 100 MW/200 MWh Lakeside battery energy storage system it acquired from Renewable Energy Systems (RES) in December 2021.

The site will be the United Kingdom’s largest transmission-connected BESS “for a while,” in the words of TagEnergy CEO Franck Woitiez, quoted in a press release issued by the company to announce activation of the facility.

The Lakeside project features Megapack 2XL lithium-ion batteries supplied by engineering, procurement, and construction services project partner Tesla.

Tag announced it had paid “close to £65 million [$85 million]” to acquire the BESS from RES and said at the time it aimed to begin construction in the final quarter of 2022 with completion slated for October 2023. In the event, construction and completion both arrived around a year behind that schedule.

The developer, in its latest press release, said it had secured financial close on the project, via a debt-based funding package, in October 2023.

Habitat Energy was named as a project partner for “route to market” and battery optimization.

Tag’s December 2021 press release, about its acquisition of Lakeside, stated the company had also acquired a 60% stake – in a joint venture with Harmony Energy – in 50 MW BESS near Luton, England and Abernethy, in Scotland. The company said it had started constructing Hawkes Hill Energy Park, in Dorset, England in September 2021 and had acquired the Roaring Hill Energy Storage Project in Fife, Scotland, also from RES.

With Tag announcing that added up to a 270 MW/540 MWh energy storage portfolio in the UK, that suggested Hawkes Hill and Roaring Hill had 70 MW/140 MWh capacity between them.

CEO Woitiez said of the activation of the Lakeside project, “For a while, Lakeside will be the largest [electricity] transmission [system]-connected BESS project in the UK and it is an important project that truly moves the needle for the energy transition. We’re proud to have delivered the project efficiently, energized and connected onto National Grid’s transmission network without significant delays or operating issues.”

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