IN Brief:
- The ready-to-build Knockanure BESS has secured a 170MW connection at the neighbouring 110kV substation.
- Its four-hour configuration corresponds to 680MWh at full rated output and has been classified as long-duration storage.
- The acquisition adds to an Irish market developing clearer procurement and revenue routes for multi-hour flexibility.
Capital Dynamics has acquired a ready-to-build four-hour battery energy storage project at Knockanure in County Kerry, marking its first energy infrastructure investment in the Republic of Ireland and adding another large asset to the country’s long-duration storage pipeline.
Capital Dynamics says the project has secured 170MW of grid connection capacity at the neighbouring 110kV Knockanure substation. Planning permission was granted in October 2025, and procurement and delivery planning have begun as the project moves towards construction.
The four-hour configuration gives the scheme a nominal energy quantity of 680MWh at full rated output, although the final usable energy specification will depend on detailed design, operating limits, auxiliary consumption, and degradation allowances. Capital Dynamics says the project is among the first in the Republic of Ireland to be classified by EirGrid as long-duration energy storage.
The classification reflects the role expected from assets that can sustain output for several hours rather than concentrating almost entirely on short-duration frequency response. Ireland already operates with a high share of variable renewable generation, particularly wind, and additional storage is being developed to move energy between periods of strong generation and tighter supply while supporting balancing and security of supply.
The country’s Electricity Storage Policy Framework has set out a route towards greater use of long-duration storage on both transmission and distribution systems, including procurement for specific network needs and work on longer-term market arrangements. Projects of this size require more than a connection agreement; they need credible routes to revenue across wholesale trading, balancing, capacity, or contracted system services.
Other Irish long-duration storage proposals are also moving through development, using a range of technologies and durations. The resulting pipeline is broadening the storage discussion beyond fast-response batteries and towards assets capable of supporting the system through longer renewable shortfalls, congestion periods, and demand peaks.
Knockanure’s defined 110kV connection is one of its more valuable development attributes. Ireland’s power system is constrained by the same problem seen across much of Europe: generation, storage, and new demand can often be developed faster than the substations and circuits required to connect them, leaving technically sound projects waiting for network capacity.
A 170MW battery also brings substantial electrical engineering requirements beyond the battery enclosures themselves. Power conversion systems, step-up transformers, switchgear, protection, metering, auxiliary supplies, controls, communications, thermal management, and fire protection all have to operate as one grid-connected plant.
The bidirectional nature of storage complicates the connection further. Unlike a conventional load or generator, the plant can move rapidly between importing and exporting power, so protection settings, active and reactive power controls, fault response, ramp rates, and communications with the system operator have to accommodate both operating directions.
Four hours of storage gives the operator greater scope to participate in energy markets, but it does not remove the need to manage battery condition carefully. Dispatch decisions must account for state of charge, round-trip efficiency, cell temperature, degradation, warranty limits, and the opportunity cost of reserving capacity for one service when another market becomes more valuable.
Revenue stacking is likely to remain central to the investment case. Wholesale arbitrage can reward charging during low-price periods and discharging when prices rise, while balancing and ancillary services value speed and controllability. Capacity or long-duration support mechanisms can add a third source of revenue, but each commitment reduces the capacity available for the others.
Ireland’s grid investment programme will shape how quickly projects such as Knockanure can be absorbed. Electricity demand is increasing as transport, heating, industry, and digital infrastructure electrify, while further renewable generation requires new transmission capacity if output is to reach consumers rather than being constrained locally.
Storage can reduce some of the operational pressure created by that transition, but it cannot substitute for transmission capacity. A battery can move electricity through time at its connection point; it cannot move power around a constrained circuit that lacks the thermal capacity to carry it. Network reinforcement and storage deployment therefore have to progress together.
The acquisition also shows how the Irish storage market is maturing commercially. Developers can bring projects through land, planning, and connection stages before transferring them to long-term infrastructure investors with the capital and risk appetite to finance construction and operation.
Knockanure has moved far enough through development for that ownership transition to take place, but the main delivery phase is still ahead. Procurement, construction, commissioning, grid-code compliance, and market registration will determine how quickly the 170MW project moves from an investable development asset to an operating source of four-hour flexibility.