Ignitis Group and Olana Energy have progressed BESS projects in Lithuania closer to construction, with the order of equipment and final investment decision (FID) taken, respectively.
The new double-header of news comes a few weeks after the country’s Ministry of Energy said that its EU-backed energy storage capex support scheme could support as much as 4,000MWh of projects. The need for the technology is growing as more renewable power capacity come online, while the Baltic region’s decoupling from Russia’s BRELL system and synchronisation with mainland Europe created an additional requirement.
Ignitis orders BESS for three projects
Utility and power generation firm Ignitis Group has ordered 291MW/582MWh of battery energy storage system (BESS) equipment from the system integrator arm of power solutions firm Rolls-Royce for three projects in Lithuania.
Rolls-Royce Power Systems will supply its mtu EnergyPack solution for the order, its largest ever, the conglomerate said today (16 September).
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The BESS will be deployed alongside other clean energy plants, the Kelmė and Mažeikiai wind farms and the Kruonis pumped storage power plant, and are expected to be online in 2027.
Darius Maikštėnas, CEO of Ignitis Group, said: “Power generation from renewables is growing in Lithuania, which makes battery energy storage systems an important guarantee of reliability. They make the network more flexible, enable efficient use of green energy and help maintain stability even through heavy fluctuations. Battery energy storage systems are a key component of green transition as they will help integrate more green capacities, balance the fluctuations in power prices as well as reduce them.”
Ignitis made a final investment decision (FID) on the three projects in July this year.
Olana Energy buys and takes FID on 70MW/140MWh project
In concurrent news, Finland-headquartered BESS developer-operator Olana Energy has taken FID on a 2-hour project in Šalčininkai, Lithuania. It is the company’s first project with FID outside of Finland.
The 70MW/140MWh BESS was acquired from developer Aura Power and will be among the largest in the country when it comes online in Q4 2026, Olana said. The project has been designed with a power and capacity oversizing strategy, it added.
Olana was formerly known as Biosolar, but its increasing focus on storage led it to rebrand last year. It has 25MW of operational projects in Finland and a 1GW pipeline in Finland and elsewhere.
