Battery storage facility lined up for approval

Plans for a battery storage facility in Bredbury look set to be granted at a meeting next week.Pivoted Power has submitted a full planning application to Stockport Borough Council for the development at National Grid’s Bredbury substation.Planning permission is sought for the installation and operation of a 49.9MW battery energy storage system (BESS) at the Stockport Road West site.The plans also include the laying out of 76 battery units on concrete foundations along with 19 inverters, ten transformers and cooling units. Also included is landscaping, fencing, a site access road and cable corridors.The site currently comprises two areas of hardstanding, which have been used for recent construction works on the Bredbury substation.It lies within the Woodford Landscape Character Area and the Greater Manchester Green Belt within Stockport Borough.An officer’s report due before Stockport Borough Council’s planning and highways regulation committee recommends granting permission subject to a section 106 agreemen.”The proposed development within the Green Belt constitutes inappropriate development which is, by definition, harmful to the Green Belt and in reducing openness conflicts with the purposes of including land in Green Belt,” the report added.”The current proposal would clearly deliver significant benefits to wider society. In light of this and based on the detailed case put forward in support of the application it is considered that a sufficiently robust case has been presented to demonstrate ‘very special circumstances’ sufficient to outweigh harm by reason of inappropriateness and any other harm, in accordance with the NPPF.”