“As far as we see, the boat has sailed for the UK market”

UK developer ILI Group has put five developed BESS projects up for sale, with a total power output of 350 MW.

All five projects marketed by the group are in Scotland, and ILI Group CEO Mark Wilson told ESS News that each is “Gate 2 ready” – meaning they meet the National Electricity System Operator’s (NESO) criteria to apply for an accelerated grid connection, as part of NESO’s ongoing work to rationalize the connections queue.

“We have just put out 350 MW of Gate-2 sites to the market, we have another 400 MW of Gate-2 sites that we are completing on presently with developers,” Wilson said. The CEO added that ILI Group has “another 400 MW to 500 MW” of projects in its pipeline.

ILI Group has been developing BESS projects in Scotland since 2015 and has sold 650 MW in power output terms to date. However, Wilson told ESS News the business has not signed up any new BESS projects for one year due to the volume of BESS in the UK pipeline.

“We’re not signing up any more battery sites,” said Wilson. “As far as we see, the boat has sailed for the UK market. There’s more than enough in the system to hit their targets and then some.”

ILI Group will still be active in the BESS space as it works through the projects in its existing pipeline. The group is also active in the pumped hydro energy storage segment. It sold its first pumped storage project to Statkraft in 2023, the 450 MW Red John Pumped Hydro Scheme.

Wilson said ILI Group expects to secure planning consent later in 2025 for a major pumped storage project in development. Located in Argyll and Bute, in the west of Scotland, the Balliemeanoch pumped hydro storage project could provide 1.5 GW of power for up to 30 hours, equating to 45 GWh of energy.

ILI Group is also open to engaging with a variety of long-duration energy storage (LDES) projects in the future, according to Wilson, who said the business is technology agnostic when it comes to LDES.

The latest tranche of ILI Group projects come to market at a time when Scottish BESS planning consents are booming. On March 24, the Scottish government’s Energy Consent Unit granted a consent order to the 200 MW/400 MWh Pond Flexible Energy Park in Bathgate, near Edinburgh. Developed by OnPath Energy, Pond Flexible Energy Park is the fifth BESS project with power output greater than 50 MW o secure approval from Scotland’s Energy Consent Unit in 2025.