A planning application to install a 2.3 megaWatt hour battery storage facility on Tebay Services southbound has been made to local authorities.
The family-run motorway services on the M6 in Cumbria, known for its artisanal shop and reliance on local produce, already has 12 Tesla Superchargers and six standard ultra-rapid EV chargers on the southbound services, plus a further three non-ultra-rapid points. Tebay hopes to add a further 58 EV charging bays to the southbound services in the future.
Now, planning documents reveal the firm intends to install a Battery Energy Storage System, or BESS, to retain electricity generated during off-peak hours when demand and prices are low, later feeding this to cars that can be charged via the BESS, rather than directly from the grid.
The system Westmorland intends to install will be able to store 2,300 kiloWatt hours of electricity, enough to deliver, as an example, around 70 charging sessions to Tesla Model 3 drivers who wish to take their batteries from 20-80%, which is a typical public charging session.
While the project looks to be overseen by US energy solutions firm Ameresco, documents indicate the “containerised” BESS itself will be supplied by Pylontech, a Shanghai-based firm founded in 2009.
The unit will measure 13.7m in length and be 2.43m wide, while standing 2.9m tall. Product specification sheets from Pylontech indicate the firm’s standard BESS units are almost precisely half the length of the one planned for Tebay. This indicates that the Tebay unit may be comprised of two units connected in a modular fashion. It is likely to weigh in excess of 30 tonnes.
Regardless of mass and assembly, an air-conditioning system will keep the batteries at optimal operating temperature, a concrete slab will rest underneath it for stability, while a wooden fence will surround the unit for added security, to reduce noise levels, and to mask its industrial design.
