IGas has submitted plans for battery storage facilities at its Welton Gathering Centre in Lincolnshire.

The planning application, to be decided by council officers under delegated powers, comprises

• Four modular containers to house battery packs and storage systems, each 12.1m long, 3.2m wide and 3.1m high
• Control room 9.1m long, 2.4m wide and 2.4m high
• Electrical transformers

The battery packs will operate 24-hours a day autonomously, IGas said. No heavy plant or HGVs would be needed while they were operating. The control cabin would not be staffed and would be visited only when needed.

Link to online details (application PL/0086/22)

People can comment on the plans until 1 September 2022.

The application has received no objections from Lincolnshire County Council highways department or West Lindsey District Council. The Environment Agency made no comment.

Sudbrooke Parish Council said the battery packs represented a change to the industrial processes at Welton:

“new electricity storage activity appears to be squeezed tightly within the curtilage of the existing site, and every change to process must be taken seriously by the community. Application is unclear about energy capacity, destination, use of energy”.

The parish council added that there had been incidents at Welton over recent years. It said the most recent, reported in the past few weeks, involved hydrocarbon smells. The complaint was dealt with quickly, the council said. A spill had been reported by the company to the Environment Agency.