Zenobē's Blackhillock Phase 1, a 200 MW grid-forming BESS connected at 275 kV, delivers inertia and short-circuit stability services under NESO's Stability Pathfinder; Phase 2 takes it to 300 MW / 700 MWh in 2027. Separately, a 2023 trial at Redhouse used an 8 MW grid-forming BESS to energise 132 kV transmission assets.
200 MW / 275 kVobserved
| Value kind | observed — Reported measurements, counts, and specifications keep the precision and scope stated by their source; an exact specification is not treated as a range. |
|---|---|
| Scope | Blackhillock provides stability services, not a black-start contract. In the NESO Distributed ReStart live trial at Redhouse (SP Energy Networks, June 2023), an 11.6 MVA / 8 MW grid-forming BESS anchored the island and energised a 90 MVA 33/132 kV transformer and a 10.6 km 132 kV line. On 2026-07-10 ZTT reported black-start and grid-restoration tests of EDC's GS12 100 MW / 200 MWh BESS in Cambodia, covering 182.8 km of 230 kV line and four substations. That is the vendor's own report, not an independently verified outage restoration. |
| Caveat | Batteries have black-started gas units since 2017 (IID, California); that is plant start-up, not network restoration. |
| As of | 2025-03 |
| Source | Zenobē Blackhillock launch (2025-03-03) and project page; NESO Distributed ReStart Redhouse Live Trial (NIA2_NGESO047, 2023) · Project description and listed grid-forming services |
| Review | checking…review by 2027-06-30 · standard cadence |
| Recorded changes | last 2026-10-12 · 5 revisions tracked |
| Claim id | demonstrated-grid-forming-bess-black-start |
Where the guide uses it
← Full numbers register — every date-stamped figure in the guide, with revision history.