IN Brief:
- Ampeak says construction of its 240MWh AW1 battery project progressed through the first half of 2026 and remains targeted for operation in 2027.
- Group revenue fell to £2.2 million as MeyGen generation declined during turbine servicing and offshore work.
- AW1 is central to Ampeak’s shift towards owning operating energy assets and has the potential to expand later from 240MWh to 480MWh.
Ampeak Energy says construction of its 240MWh AW1 battery storage project at Uskmouth progressed through the first half of 2026, as weaker output from the MeyGen tidal array contributed to a fall in group revenue.
The update forms part of Ampeak’s interim results for the six months to 30 June rather than a newly reached construction milestone. AW1 was already under construction before the reporting period, but the company says work continued with its funding partners, suppliers and contractors as it seeks to deliver the project safely, on time and on budget.
AW1 is being developed at the Uskmouth Sustainable Energy Park near Newport. The site has more than five decades of electricity generation history and is now being repurposed around battery storage, using existing industrial land and grid infrastructure to support a pipeline of large storage projects.
The initial AW1 configuration provides 240MWh of energy storage. Ampeak says the project has the ability to expand later to 480MWh, effectively moving from two hours to four hours of storage while retaining the same broad connection strategy. The company currently expects the 240MWh phase to be online during 2027.
The project has a contracted grid connection date of October 2026. That gives the remaining delivery programme a defined electrical milestone, after which commissioning can progress towards commercial operation. Battery installation alone is not enough to bring a project into service: transformers, power conversion equipment, protection, communications and control systems all have to be tested against the requirements of the connection.
Canadian Solar SES is supplying the battery equipment, while Jones Bros Ruthin is responsible for the balance of plant works. Ampeak also has a 12-year floored revenue optimisation agreement with EDF alongside Capacity Market revenues, giving AW1 a mixture of contracted and market-facing income once it begins operating.
The ownership structure changed shortly before the interim results were published. JBR Energy Holdings, an investment vehicle owned by directors of Jones Bros, acquired a 24.7% interest in AW1 Storage Holdings for £7.8 million at the beginning of September. Ampeak retained a controlling 50.6% stake.
The transaction gives Ampeak additional liquidity while keeping AW1 within its controlled operating portfolio. It also gives interests associated with the balance of plant contractor an equity position in the project, although construction responsibilities continue to be governed through the existing delivery contracts.
AW1 is significant because Ampeak is shifting from a business centred heavily on development towards ownership and operation of energy infrastructure. The company’s earlier Uskmouth battery project was sold to another developer, while AW1 is intended to remain within Ampeak’s portfolio and generate recurring revenue after commissioning.
The latest financial results underline the importance of that transition. Group revenue fell to £2.2 million during the first half from £3.5 million in the corresponding 2025 period. Revenue from MeyGen fell as electricity generation declined to 4.4GWh from 7.9GWh after offshore work and the return of one turbine to shore for servicing.
Ampeak reported a £4.7 million loss before tax, compared with £4.6 million during the first half of 2025. The company also continues to identify additional funding as an important requirement as it delivers AW1 and progresses the wider project pipeline.
The revenue decline does not reflect AW1 performance because the battery is not yet operational. Instead, it highlights the gap between committing capital to new infrastructure and receiving operating income from it. Until commissioning is complete, the project consumes development and construction resources rather than contributing storage revenue.
That makes the October grid connection an important engineering and financial milestone. Energisation allows the project to move into integrated testing, where battery racks, converters, transformers, protection and control systems are operated together against the requirements of the network connection.
The planned expansion to 480MWh offers a second route to increasing the value of the site once the initial plant is operating. Extending duration allows more energy to be shifted between charging and discharging periods and can widen the range of wholesale and system services available, although the economic case will depend on future battery costs and market conditions.
Uskmouth has sufficient land and infrastructure for a much larger portfolio. Ampeak says the site is capable of supporting around 3.5GWh of battery storage, with AW2 already consented for up to 1,250MWh and further projects planned behind it. Existing National Grid infrastructure on the site is a material advantage, although each project still needs its own connection, equipment and commissioning programme.
That broader pipeline gives AW1 another role as the first large storage project Ampeak intends to build, own and operate under its current strategy. Delivery performance will therefore influence more than the economics of one 240MWh system: it provides the operational template for projects that are substantially larger.
The interim results do not present construction starting, financial close or the appointment of suppliers as new September developments; those steps had already occurred. The current information is that work continued through the reporting period against the established programme while the company dealt with lower revenue elsewhere in the group.
For the remainder of 2026, AW1’s most useful measure of progress will be physical delivery towards the October grid connection rather than another restatement of its headline capacity. If energisation and commissioning remain on programme, the project can begin moving from a construction cost to the operating asset around which Ampeak is building its storage strategy.