MW Storage has enlisted optimiser Entrix to commercialise 50MW/100MWh of the capacity of a project twice that size in the town of Arzberg, Germany.
Entrix will trade half of the 100MW/200MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) project in the Bavaria region once it is commissioned in April 2025, one of Europe’s largest batteries according to MW Storage.
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Entrix will play the BESS into ancillary services and day-ahead and intraday wholesale markets, and it claims to be able to minimise downtime and optimise the operational life of the batteries using an emphasis on close technical integration.
The MW Storage Fund is primarily backed by investment firms Reichmuth Infrastructure and MW Storage while German distribution network operator (DNO) Bayernwerk and utility consortium Zukunftsenergie Nordostbayern GmbH (ZENOB) are minority investors.
Although not mentioned in Entrix’s announcement, it appears to be the project deployed for MW Storage by system integrator Fluence.
The announcement comes after a period of intense discussion around the evolving revenue opportunities, business case and risk management strategies in the German grid-scale storage market, which many see as one of the most attractive in Europe.
While the ancillary services markets are beginning to saturate, most commentators say the volatility and depth of its wholesale market mean revenues will not drop like in the UK in 2023/24. Revenues and performance are also becoming more transparent with the emergence of more publicly-available indexes and benchmarks recently.
Tolls are nonetheless emerging in Germany as a way to mitigate long-term risk for project owners, with the first in Continental Europe claimed by Nofar Energy in December. The topic was heavily discussed at last month’s Energy Storage Summit EU in London (Premium access article).
Entrix did not say whether its deal with MW Storage is a toll or a merchant, revenue-share arrangement, but a company of its size would not typically have the balance sheet to offer a toll. MW Storage has not said how the other half of the BESS will be commercialised.
The owner-operator’s first project was in Switzerland and it also recently expanded to the Finnish market.
