Green light for battery storage on former power station site

Plans for a battery storage facility on the site of a former power station on the outskirts of Leeds have been given the go-ahead.Skelton Peak Power, supported by RPS, submitted a full planning application to Leeds City Council earlier this year for development on a 5.4-acre site at the former Skelton Grange Power Station.The plans cover the development of a 99-megawatt (MW) energy storage facility, with grid connection to the existing substation at Skelton.A bout 144 battery units, substation and control units and a DNO compound are proposed, as well as infrastructure and landscaping.The facility would be used to store surplus electricity from the grid and then provide a means of additional electricity supply at times of peak demand.The council has now granted planning permission for the development, subject to conditions, under delegated powers.Planning permission was previously granted in 2018 for a peaking plant comprising gas fuelled engines to drive generators, together with storage capacity from large scale batteries.A 19.5 acre site at Skelton Grange was also acquired last year by Multifuel Energy Ltd 2 for a new waste-to-energy facility.