Pulse Clean Energy announced today (25 March) that it has activated a 42MW/100MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Cheshire.
The two-hour duration Hyde BESS is located in the Greater Manchester area, to the west of the city centre. The project was financed through a £175 million credit facility delivered by Santander, CIBC, Investec, and the UK’s National Wealth Fund. Equity was also supplied by the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario.
The project is the sixth BESS that Pulse Clean Energy has energised since 2023 as part of its target to deliver 1GW of installed BESS capacity in the UK. These include a 22MW BESS energised in November last year, as well as four batteries totalling 100MWh activated in July 2023 as part of a collaboration with Habitat Energy. Both of these projects are part of a wider plan by Pulse Clean Energy to convert diesel power generation sites to grid-scale BESS assets, representing the fifth of nine sites that Pulse plans to convert in this way.
Trevor Willis, CEO of Pulse Clean Energy, said that the firm was “proud” to have delivered the project. He added: “At a time when the nation is grappling with rising energy costs while striving to meet ambitious renewable energy targets, battery storage has never been more important. By managing the intermittency of renewable sources to ensure a reliable supply of power, our Hyde BESS is playing a key role”.
At present, Pulse Clean Energy has a portfolio with a combined capacity of over 1GWh. This includes 260MWh of operational BESS assets, as well as 273MWh of assets under construction.
Pulse changes the tech landscape for the BESS sector
Last month, the company launched an industry-first tool allowing BESS asset managers to track and certify the carbon emissions saved by BESS usage. The project was created in collaboration with the National Wealth Fund and LCP Delta and leverages real-time data from Elexon, the UK’s electricity market operator, to calculate emissions data in half-hour periods.
The tool is free and open-source, and Pulse Clean Energy is encouraging all BESS investors and asset owners implement the tool in order to help understand and verify the positive impact of BESS assets in the UK.
