Bid for energy facility

A pre-application for a major development at Braco will go before councillors this week.

Gigabox Developments Ltd is preparing to submit plans to Perth and Kinross Council to create a major energy storage facility on up to two hectares of land at Shindour Feddal Hill Wood, Braco.

The facility would include up to 50 battery storage container units, a control building, ancillary equipment, parking, boundary treatments, landscaping and associated works.

The site proposed is on land immediately to the south of the existing Braco West substation.

It is envisaged the battery storage units would be housed within steel shipping containers along with ancillary structures including a substation compound containing transformers and an electronic control building adjacent.

In its proposal of application notice (PAN) Gigabox Developments said: “The proposed energy storage facility would provide rapid-response electrical back-up to the electricity grid and would represent an early deployment within Scotland of a high-tech grid balancing facility, of a type which is already seeing significant deployment in the UK, USA, Australia and other parts of the world.

“It would also provide employment opportunities through the construction, operation and maintenance of the project.

“The facility would have the capacity to store and export up to 49.9 megawatt hours of electrical energy.”

An online public consultation event was held on January 14.