Utility Eneco will optimise a BESS project in the Netherlands that, at 31.6MW/126.4MWh, will be the country’s largest when it comes online before the end of the year.
Construction is underway on the battery energy storage system (BESS) which will be located beside a transformer station in Dronten, linked to the Windplan Groen wind power plant, where the electricity is brought together in a closed distribution system.
ASN Bank is financing the project via a loan while Eneco will optimise the project, though it is not the owner.
The project appears to actually be one of three on the same site which form the Dronter Energy Storage (Dronter Energie Opslag) project.
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Construction was announced on that project in November last year by its owners, holding company FlevoBESS, investor GreenPowerBank Dronten and green energy utility Pure Energie. It also has 400 local shareholders.
A commissioning date of 2026 was announced then though it now appears it will be built in three phases, or perhaps even be three entirely distinct projects. Each will have a capacity of 31.6MW, Eneco said. The utility and trader will use the battery to balance the grid and optimise the output of the wind plant.
The project is one of several announced in the Netherlands in the past year which illustrate a maturation of the country’s energy storage market. The market had been beset by numerous challenges including high grid fees and a local apprehension towards energy storage, but a grid fee reform, covered by Energy-Storage.news Premium in early 2024, appears to have kickstarted the industry after a stagnant few years.
BESS projects totalling over 3GWh of energy storage capacity were progressed or permitted in the months after, by developer-operators Lion Storage, Giga Storage, SemperPower and Corre Energy together, and Powerfield. LC Energy meanwhile had a 2GWh project permitted, but told Energy-Storage.news more reforms were still needed (Premium access).
Late 2024 saw developer Dispatch start construction on a 45MW/90MWh project which it said would be the Netherlands’ largest standalone BESS (also optimised by Eneco), while German utility and independent power producer (IPP) RWE said it would commission an 11MWh ‘grid-forming’ BESS before the end of the year. Late 2024 also saw Low Carbon sell a 6GW portfolio of BESS projects to S4 Energy.
The largest project currently online stands at 68MWh, brought online by SemperPower in 2023.
