Three separate applications for ‘battery box’ units to provide electricity storage during off-peak times have been submitted to Pembrokeshire planners.

The three schemes, all made by AMP Clean Energy, seek permission for micro energy storage unit ‘battery boxes’ on land between Steynton Road and Sheffield Drive and Castle Terrace and Pill Road, Milford Haven; and on a verge at Fishguard Leisure Centre Car Park.

A supporting statement accompanying each application says: “AMP Clean Energy is developing Battery Boxes across the UK to provide a low carbon, flexible and de-centralised store of electricity that benefits local communities, businesses, and homes.”

It says the battery boxes import electricity from the local electricity network when demand for electricity is low or when there are high levels of renewable energy available, exporting it back during periods of high demand to help address grid reliability issues prompted by an increase of intermittent (wind and solar) generation of the electricity system.

AMP Clean Energy says it is developing up to 1,250-plus Battery Boxes in the UK over the next three years and, to date, has received planning consent for more than 80 such schemes across the country.

It says each box, which takes up roughly two car parking spaces, stores 800kWh of electricity, giving the potential to power 200 homes for four hours where there is a disruption to supply.

The statement adds: “The UK’s electricity system was traditionally dominated by a small number of large power stations fuelled by fossil fuel (namely coal and natural gas). However, the system is now becoming increasingly supplied by intermittent sources of renewable energy such as wind and solar power.

“Renewable power generation does not always match when the demand for electricity is highest. To overcome this, we need a more flexible energy system that allows us to shift renewable energy to the periods of the day when the demand for power is at its greatest.

“And as the UK builds more and more renewable projects, increasingly there are times when the amount of renewable electricity on the system is greater than the demand for it.”

The three applications will be considered by county planners at a later date.