Lower Road Project, a battery energy storage solution

Lower Road is a 10MW energy storage site in the South of England. The project was originally developed by Origami Energy and later acquired by Gore Street Energy Storage Fund. NEC Energy Solution were the lead project EPC, supported by Nippon Koei Co., with Kirby Group Engineering engaged to undertake the Contestable (ICP) and Balance of Plant (BoP) works for the project. Ormazabal was awarded the 33kV connection point switchgear and customer substation scope in 2019 by Kirby Group Engineering.

Kirby Group Engineering is a mechanical and electrical engineering contractor with operations in Ireland, the UK and Europe. It provides full mechanical and electrical contracting services as well as specialist high voltage (HV) and medium voltage (MV) design and construction services to clients across a number of different sectors including Data Centres, Life Sciences, Industrial Manufacturing, Substations and Renewables, Power Generation, Petrochemical and Commercial.

“We found Ormazabal’s UK team to be very responsive to all our queries and accommodating to our changing needs. With a short programme to achieve, they were proactive from the start and helped Kirby to succeed with our dates and we look forward to working with them on future projects”. Derek Farrel, Lead Project Engineer – Kirby Group Engineering.

In addition to supplying and installing our cpg.0 ENA switchgear for the grid connection, Ormazabal UK designed and built a bespoke GRP substation which fully met the client requirements and was delivered within the required timescales of the project.

Ormazabal has extensive experience of providing grid connection switchboards across the whole of the UK, with over 500 panels of our cpg.0 switchgear supplied into this market to date. The protection and control solution was engineered and built in-house at our UK works.

Ormazabal cpg.0 switchgear and substation 36kV 1250A 25kA 3 sec Scope of supply 1 x IEC cpg.0 36kV 1250A switchboard comprising Qty 3 “V” cubicles and associated protection schemes 1 x GRP Substation inclusive of design, fit out and delivery 1 x ENA cpg.0 36kV 1250A switchboard comprising Qty 2 “V” cubicles and associated UKPN specific protection schemes

Ormazabal solution:

The customer side package substation comprised a 33kV cpg.0 switchboard, protection and control, low voltage, communications equipment and HVAC. The GRP substation was arranged in two sections – one room was allocated for the Ormazabal cpg.0 IEC switchgear along with protection and control, the other room for the customer LV and communications equipment.

As well as supplying the cpg.0 switchgear, Ormazabal UK fully engineered a control and protection solution inclusive of the Connection of Generation (G99) scheme as well as a switchgear integrated battery and charger unit. All works were completed at Ormazabal UK works by our team of highly skilled technicians and commissioning engineers.

Following a successful FAT of the solution at our UK works in St Helens, we coordinated closely with our client to ensure the equipment was landed safely at site, before final testing and customer handover.

All project management, logistics, onsite testing and handover was conducted by our UK team.

Ormazabal challenge:

Kirby Group Engineering required Ormazabal to supply a solution for the connection of a 10MW Battery Storage source to the grid in the UK Power Networks region. The Ormazabal scope included the supply, delivery and install of a 33kV Grid Connection switchboard, inclusive of a complex protection scheme, along with a Customer side package substation.

In developing this project, we were able to draw on our extensive experience to ensure we delivered the complete solution for protection and control, fully aligned with the requirements of the Distribution Network Operator (DNO). For the package substation, Ormazabal worked closely with Kirby Group Engineering to optimize all aspects of the design in order to provide our Customer with a solution that met all of their technical, delivery and project budget requirements. The substation was designed inclusive of a steel base with lifting lugs. This allowed comprehensive fit out and test to be completed prior to delivery, thus minimizing onsite risk. With the project completed in-house at Ormazabal UK, we were able to provide flexibility and fast response when changes in scope occurred during production.

Key Benefits to client:

• Ormazabal has extensive experience of UK Power Networks connection point schemes. We were able to provide support to Kirby in ensuring the key details were confirmed by the DNO during the early stages of the project (e.g. CTs, protection relays).
• Kirby Group Engineering could propose the Ormazabal cpg.0 ENA 33kV switchgear to this DNO with complete confidence as it is listed on the UK Power Networks G81 database of approved electrical equipment.
• Our UK engineering team and assembly works allowed us to provide a bespoke customer substation to fully meet the requirements of the project. It also meant that we could be flexible throughout the project duration with regards to any scope changes, variations and site work.
• A comprehensive package of drawings including General Arrangements of the substation was supplied by Ormazabal early in the project to ensure customer readiness on site.