Leadership requirements during BESS construction and commissioning

The move from development to construction is where a battery storage business stops being a collection of options and becomes a physical asset. It is also where leadership gaps become expensive quickly. A delay of a few months can affect revenue start dates, financing conditions and the credibility of the team with investors.

A different kind of risk

Development risk is mainly about uncertainty: will the site be consented, will the connection hold, will the economics work? Construction risk is about execution. Equipment must arrive on time and to specification, contractors must perform, interfaces between battery supplier, balance of plant contractor and network operator must be managed, and everyone on site must go home safely.

The UK government's guidance on health and safety in grid scale electrical energy storage systems, published by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero in April 2024 and written by Frazer Nash Consultancy, makes the point that responsibilities extend across the full lifecycle. It sets out how the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 apply to storage projects, including the duties of the client, which is usually the asset owner, to make suitable arrangements for managing health and safety and to appoint a principal designer and principal contractor.

For many developers, being the CDM client on a large electrical construction project is a new responsibility. It needs senior attention, not just a consultant's report.

Commissioning is a phase, not an event

The same guidance describes commissioning as a series of steps to demonstrate and record system performance before a system becomes operational, including factory acceptance testing, operational acceptance testing of the battery management system and communications, site acceptance testing and robustness testing. It also notes that commissioning is when operating staff should be trained and operational and safety plans finalised.

In practice, commissioning is where construction, operations, trading and the network operator all meet. Weaknesses in any one of them show up as delay. The leader responsible needs authority across all four.

The leadership profile this phase needs

Programme discipline. Someone who can build and hold an integrated schedule across procurement, construction, grid works and commissioning, and who recognises early when it is slipping.

Contractor management. The ability to hold suppliers and contractors to their obligations firmly and fairly, and to resolve interface disputes before they become claims.

Safety leadership. Visible, practical commitment to safe working, including the specific hazards of high voltage equipment and lithium ion battery systems.

Commercial awareness. An understanding of how a delayed energisation date affects revenue, financing and investor confidence, so that decisions on acceleration and cost are made in context.

Handover thinking. The best delivery leaders plan for operation from the start, so that the asset management team inherits a well documented, well understood system.

Permanent, interim or partner?

Construction leadership is intense and time bound. For a developer building one or two projects, an experienced interim delivery director can be the right answer, bringing proven capability without a permanent cost once the projects are operational. For a business with a continuous construction pipeline, a permanent head of delivery becomes essential. Some businesses use an owner's engineer for technical oversight but still need an accountable leader inside the company to make decisions. See our approach to interim and fractional leadership.

Questions for the board before construction starts

• Who is accountable for delivery, and do they have authority over every interface?
• Has that person led construction of comparable electrical infrastructure before?
• How will the board know, early, if the programme is slipping?
• Who will lead commissioning and handover, and when will the operations team be involved?

Clear answers before the first excavation reduce the chance of uncomfortable conversations with investors later.

Last reviewed 8 October 2026. Figures are correct to the cited sources at that date.