Why BESS developers need different leadership teams at different project stages

A battery storage project changes character several times before it earns its first pound. It begins as an option on land and a grid application, becomes a consented and connected asset, is financed and built, and finally operates as a trading business for fifteen years or more. Each phase asks different things of the people leading it, and businesses that keep the same leadership shape throughout often find themselves strong where they no longer need to be and thin where it now matters most.

Origination and consent: judgement under uncertainty

Early stage development rewards people who are comfortable making decisions with incomplete information. Which landowners to approach, which substations offer realistic capacity, which planning authorities are likely to be receptive, and when to walk away from a site. The best development leaders in this phase combine commercial instinct with enough technical literacy to challenge consultants and enough patience to manage long planning processes and local engagement.

The risk at this stage is not usually a lack of energy. It is a lack of discipline about which projects deserve continued spending. A leader who can stop a weak project early often creates more value than one who pushes every site forward.

Grid: the phase that now shapes everything else

In Great Britain, the connection position has become the single most important variable in a development portfolio. Ofgem approved NESO's TMO4+ reforms in April 2025, replacing the old "first come, first connected" queue with a "first ready and needed, first connected" approach that tests projects against readiness criteria and strategic need. When NESO published the results in December 2025, 83 GW of battery storage received Gate 2 offers, while 153 GW was not prioritised and received Gate 1 offers or left the queue.

That outcome has changed what development teams need. A portfolio is now only as valuable as its connection dates and the evidence behind them. Leadership in this phase needs people who understand connection agreements, reservation and milestone obligations, and how to manage the relationship with network operators over several years. We explore this further in The growing importance of grid connections leadership.

Financing: from project to investable business

Once a project is consented and connected, the questions change again. Lenders and equity investors want to understand revenue strategy, contracting structures and the competence of the team that will run the asset. In Great Britain, offtake structures such as revenue floors and tolling agreements have become a recognised way to reduce merchant exposure and support financing, as Modo Energy's analysis of GB derisking structures sets out.

The leadership requirement at this point is financial and commercial: someone who can build a credible model, negotiate with optimisers and lenders, and present the business with authority. Many development led companies reach this point with an excellent origination team and no senior finance leader who has closed project or portfolio debt before.

Construction and commissioning: delivery discipline

Construction introduces new risks: supply chain timing, contractor performance, health and safety duties and the technical demands of commissioning. The UK government's guidance on health and safety in grid scale electrical energy storage, published in April 2024, sets out how the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 apply and describes commissioning as a structured series of acceptance tests before a system becomes operational.

This phase needs leaders who have delivered infrastructure to programme, who can hold contractors to account and who will not allow schedule pressure to compromise safety. It is also where interim or fractional appointments often make sense, because the requirement is intense but finite.

Operation: running a trading asset

An operational battery is not a passive asset. Revenues depend on availability, trading strategy and the performance of optimisation partners. Modo Energy reported that fleet availability in Great Britain averaged 95% from September 2024, down from 97% to 98% a year earlier, and linked the dip to record commissioning. Small changes in availability flow directly to revenue and to compliance with financing covenants.

Asset management leadership therefore matters as much as development leadership did earlier. The skills are different again: operational rigour, data literacy, contract management and an understanding of how trading decisions interact with battery degradation and warranties.

What this means for boards and founders

None of this means every business needs a full senior team for every phase from day one. It means the leadership plan should be built around the project lifecycle rather than around the organisation chart. Three practical questions help:

• Which phase will most of our portfolio be in over the next eighteen months?
• Who on the current team has led that phase before, at that scale?
• Where a gap exists, is it best filled permanently, on an interim basis, or through a partner?

Answering those questions honestly is usually the most valuable leadership work a growing storage business can do. It turns hiring from a reaction to vacancies into a deliberate part of the investment case.

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