Blandford Road

Blandford Road is a 25 MW (50MWh) utility-scale BESS, developed by Noriker and delivered in partnership with Equinor, as Equinor's first UK BESS project.

The project is located in Dorset, on the outskirts of Poole and connects to the nearby Lytchett substation, operated by Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN).

Noriker provided the full suite of project lifecycle services from early-stage development and planning approval, through to construction management and commissioning, successfully entering commercial operations in December 2024. Throughout the construction, Noriker acted on behalf of Equinor as the Owner's Engineer and Owner's Representative, ensuring thorough technical due diligence and stakeholder management.

Noriker continue to support the project during the operational phase in collaboration with Equinor, overseeing the O&M service provider and ensuring reliable support for the Noricore SCADA system.

As the first UK BESS project for both the owner and EPC, the project brought teams from several organisations into a collaboration for the first time. Drawing upon previous experience, knowledge in the BESS sector and through a proactive approach, the Noriker team played the central role in managing the complex interfaces between all the stakeholders and various disciplines to ensure successful delivery of the project.

A particular technical challenge associated with the project was to achieve grid code compliance. At some locations with a “weak” grid, switching in large transformers during a re-connection to the grid can lead to excessive voltage disturbances on the wider electricity network. In collaboration with the inverter OEM, and using the flexibility of the Noricore SCADA system, the team implemented an automated transformer pre-magnetisation control strategy to achieve full compliance, avoid grid disturbance, and ensure rapid unmanned reconnection after any unplanned grid outages.

With Noriker's ongoing O&M support, Blandford Road continues to deliver on its performance requirements helping to support the grid towards a greener future.