All 55 batteries installed at new energy storage facility

Nation.Cymru staff

All 55 batteries are now in place at a new energy storage facility due to draw power from the grid for the first time later this month.

The 240 megawatt-hour Afon Wysg 1 project is at the former Uskmouth power station in Newport. Developer Ampeak Energy says it is on track to enter commercial operation in the first three months of 2027.

The facility will store electricity from the grid and release it when needed. Ampeak is working to secure funding for an expansion that would double its storage capacity to 480 megawatt-hours. The contractor has already laid foundations for the extra batteries, which Ampeak says will allow the expansion to go ahead with minimal disruption once the first phase is operating.

The batteries were supplied by e-STORAGE, part of Canadian Solar, and installed by principal contractor Jones Bros Civil Engineering UK. A 10-person team, including a higher degree apprentice, coordinated deliveries over 22 days. The equipment, which also included 36 inverters and the main grid transformer, weighed close to 3,000 tonnes.

Jones Bros project manager Gareth White said the contractor had recruited locally. The site foreman and five operatives were based near Uskmouth.

The contractor has built a new substation and installed high-voltage cabling for the grid connection, reusing around two-thirds of the former power station’s export cable. Construction aggregates were brought in by rail to cut lorry journeys, and concrete from earlier demolition work was crushed and reused. The work also included a pond to manage surface water and landscaping intended to improve biodiversity.

Once the batteries are energised, e-STORAGE will test how they charge and discharge before the facility enters commercial operation.

David Taaffe, Ampeak’s incoming chief executive, said: “This has been a complex operation, requiring careful planning and close coordination between Ampeak Energy, Jones Bros, e-STORAGE, and our wider supply chain.”

Matt Paterson, a managing director at e-STORAGE, said: “Getting the equipment onto site in sequence was the first test. Energisation and commissioning is the next, when the batteries and power conversion systems have to perform together as one system on the grid.”