Alfen building battery storage system with black start functionality for Finnish wind farm

LinkedIn
Twitter
Reddit
Facebook
Email

Energy solutions integrator Alfen is building a 12MW battery energy storage system (BESS) with black start functionality for co-location with a wind farm in Finland.

Netherlands-based Alfen is building the BESS, which it claims is Finland’s third-largest, for electricity generation company EPV Energy’s Teuva wind farm. The one-hour system (12MWh) will be completed in spring 2023.

The BESS will provide grid balancing services to restore frequency in the event of a generating unit dropping off the system unexpectedly. It will also provide black start functionality to the wind farm, which means that in the event of a power outage on the local grid the wind farm can be restarted with energy from the BESS.

“In this way, the new battery system will serve as a strong risk management tool in EPV Energy’s production portfolio,” said Niko Toppari, managing director of EPV Akkuhybridi, a subsidiary of EPV Energy.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Enjoy 12 months of exclusive analysis

Not ready to commit yet?
  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Annual digital subscription to the PV Tech Power journal
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

Alfen said the BESS will use its latest TheBattery Elements design which has a minimum power of 1MW. The batteries are contained in smaller, more flexible outdoor units rather than traditional shipping containers, it said.

BESS projects are increasingly being called upon to provide black start functionality for not only generating units, but even entire grid networks. The first use of a BESS to do this may have come in 2017, when a utility in California used one to fire up a combined cycle gas turbine.

In 2018, UK grid operator National Grid announced it would look at including BESS projects in future procurements of black start services. The contracts are lucrative, with around £55 million (US$70 million) on 18 Black Start contracts that year. The capability for BESS has also been talked about in Texas which has recently suffered numerous outages due to extreme weather events.

11 November 2025
San Diego, USA
The 2024 Summit included innovative new features including a ‘Crash Course in Battery Asset Management’, Ask-Me-Anything formats and debate-style sessions. You can expect to meet and network with all the key industry players again in 2025 from major US asset owners, operators, RTOs and ISOs, optimizers, software and analytics providers, technical consultancies, O&M technology providers and more.

Read Next

October 8, 2025
US utility Xcel Energy has proposed to build out a 200MW battery storage network across Minnesota, US.
October 8, 2025
The NSW Independent Planning Commission has granted planning approval for Potentia Energy’s 500MW Tallawang solar-plus-storage project.
Premium
October 7, 2025
Energy-Storage.news Premium hears from a representative from Honeywell and Alejandro Schnakofsky, CTO of Prevalon, on fire safety in the battery energy storage system (BESS) industry.
Premium
October 7, 2025
ESN Premium speaks with Fluence’s Matt Grover about the need for sophisticated software solutions to enhance battery trading.
October 6, 2025
Nightpeak Energy has announced commercial operations of its 150MW/300MWh Bocanova Power battery energy storage system (BESS) in Brazoria County, Texas, US.

Most Popular

Email Newsletter