Battery boost for Blackburn Meadows power plant

The 10 megawatt lithium-ion battery — which has the same power as 500,000 mobile phone batteries — is part of an energy storage project at E.ON’s Blackburn Meadows facility.

The £5 million project has taken a year to complete and is the first in the country to go into action.

The battery itself consists of 1,000 South Korean-made power cells which store electricity generated at the Alsing Road plant.

The battery can store power when grid demand goes down and then immediately release it back to the system — within a second — if it is needed.

The 20 hectare plant — which employs just 25 people — produces enough power for 40,000 homes from burning 25 tonnes of wood chip per hour in its 1,000 degree furnace.

E.ON at Tinsley won one of 12 contracts nationally to build a battery and was ready to get started quickly after getting the go-ahead last October.

Plant manager Luke Ellis said he was pleased that the battery is now in use as it ensures the plant’s provision of electricity.

Mr Ellis said: “This is the first project of its type to be brought online.

“We are proud of it and our team has worked hard to achieve it.”