A 3.6 GWh, 18-hour lithium-ion BESS project has secured planning consent in Scotland

The 18-hour Rigifa BESS project in Scotland has secured planning approval, paving the way for investment and construction of the second-largest battery project in the new UK long-duration energy storage (LDES) cap and floor scheme.

Field Head of Development Bex Sherwood announced on LinkedIn that the 200 MW/3,600 MWh Rigifa BESS was granted “irrevocable planning consent.” The developer has four other UK sites under construction, as well as six live sites operating in Germany and the United Kingdom.

Rigifa BESS is one of five Field projects selected by energy regulator Ofgem for support via the forthcoming LDES cap and floor scheme. The others include three more in North Scotland – including the largest cap-and-floor BESS, Field New Deer (400 MW/7,200MWh) – plus the 200 MW/3,300 MWh Field Long Stratton project under development in East England.

For successful projects such as Rigifa, the LDES cap and floor scheme is expected to provide revenue certainty needed to support investment in large-scale, long-duration energy storage projects. The support is similar in design to a cap-and-floor program that was introduced for UK interconnector projects. Cap-and-floor generally provides projects with a guaranteed revenue floor, with revenues topped up if market prices fall below this level. The project owner must also repay any revenues exceeding the agreed price cap.

Ofgem published its “minded-to” decisions for LDES projects in June 2026, selecting 16 projects from a shortlist of 77 that was revealed in September 2025. BESS deployment in the United Kingdom has been largely driven by the private sector until this point, with the technology unable to secure the kinds of state-backed revenue guarantees on offer to renewable generators through contracts for difference auction.

While the number of BESS projects in the UK pipeline significantly exceeds the required capacity in power rating terms, with two-hour-duration assets proving popular, grid operator NESO has forecast a need for longer-duration energy storage assets in the future.

One senior figure at Ofgem told ESS News that when assessing the need for market intervention via an LDES cap-and-floor, the regulator identified a discrete market failure in ability to bring online the type of assets that will be supported by the program. 

When complete, Rigifa BESS will connect to the Gills Bay substation near Thurso on the north coast of Scotland. Wind generation in Scotland has been subject to significant curtailment, and seven of the 16 LDES cap and floor projects selected by Ofgem are in the north of Scotland. These comprise the four Field BESS projects plus three pumped storage hydro projects