Stornoway power station

Stornoway power station, also known as Battery Point Power Station, is an electrical generation facility in Stornoway, Scotland. It was commissioned in 1954 to supply power to the Western Isles. The station has eight Mirrlees Blackstone medium speed diesel generators with a combined output of 25.5MW. The station is owned and operated by Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), part of SSE plc. The Western Isles power network was originally operated independently of the Scottish mainland network. In 1990 a 33kV submarine interconnector cable was constructed to link to the 132kV single circuit from Fort Augustus via Skye to Harris onto Lewis. The power station now operates principally as a 'peaking' station during the winter months when demand exceeds the capacity of the interconnector (ca. 22MW) and during maintenance of the interconnector in the summer months as well as providing backup in case of loss of the inter-connector supply. Other smaller power stations on the Western Isles are located at Arnish (near Stornoway), Lewis; Loch Carnan, South Uist; and Ardveenish, Barra.