We hear from utility Eesti Energia about its 25MW/50MWh BESS project in Estonia, including what it hopes to achieve with the project and why it needed a second procurement to launch the project.
State-owned Eesti Energia signed an agreement with lithium-ion OEM LG Energy Solution for the project at its Auvere industrial power plant complex, as reported by us at the time. The whole Baltic region is desynchronising from Russia and connecting to mainland Europe’s electricity system soon, which Eesti management board member Kristjan Kuhi discussed in this Q&A.
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Alongside that desynchronisation, Kuhi touched on what the firm is hoping to achieve with its first project, the drivers behind Estonia’s grid-scale energy storage market, and more.
Grid-scale energy storage projects are being deployed in other Baltic nations Lithuania and Latvia. Latvia’s transmission system operator (TSO) AST selected Rolls-Royce Solutions for 80MW/160MWh of projects while Fluence has already deployed 200MW/200MWh of storage-as-transmission BESS for Lithuania’s TSO Litgrid.
Energy-Storage.news: What changes in the electricity sector in Estonia are driving the need for energy storage?
Kristjan Kuhi: Estonia and the whole Baltic region is currently rapidly increasing its renewable energy production. The more production of non-dispatchable renewable energy we have on the market, the more the electricity system will need storage to keep prices stable.
So ideally, the development of renewable energy production and energy storage development should go hand in hand.
In addition, the transition to a 15-minute balancing period and the desynchronisation of the Baltic electricity system from the Russian grid will increase the need for storage.
Can you provide an update on the decoupling from Russia and synchronising with the European system?
The desynchronisation from BRELL network is planned for February 2025. The Baltic TSO’s can give a more detailed overview of this plan.
In this project, Eesti Energia is definitely a key player with our dispatchable production capacities which can help to maintain the stability of the Baltic electricity system.
Can you explain your 25MW/50MWh BESS project: why it was launched and what it will be used for?
Eesti Energia will build the company’s first large-scale storage system at the Auvere industrial complex later this year to balance the fluctuations in electricity prices caused by the growth in renewable energy production and to support the stability of the electrical system. This is a pilot project to make sure the solution is suitable both in Estonia and the company’s other retail markets.
Estonia and the Baltics is scheduled to be decoupled from the Russian electricity system in 2025, after which the Baltic electricity grids will have to manage their own frequencies. Storage solutions will help to ensure that the electricity system is operational, i.e. that the balance between consumption and generation and frequency is guaranteed.
As batteries are able to react very quickly to changes in the electricity system, they are ideal assets for ensuring such ‘system services’.
Why did the initial procurement fail to secure a supplier, and how was the second structured differently to be successful?
Since it is our first storage project, we initially mis-evaluated some of the requirements in the first procurement. However, thanks to the feedback from the market, we were quickly able to make adjustments.
Why was LG chosen and when will the project come online?
LG’s proposed project was most suitable for Eesti Energia regarding the technology and its cost.
Can we have an update on your pumped hydro energy storage project?
The pumped hydroelectric power plant project is currently at the pre-study stage, where work continues to develop a commercially viable and technically feasible solution.
What other BESS projects are we likely to see in Estonia in the near future?
The 25MW/50MWh BESS project is a pilot project, which means that we want to convince ourselves that it is possible to design similar storage facilities outside Estonia, i.e. in Eesti Energia’s other home markets in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
Future storage plans will depend primarily on the outcome of this large-scale energy storage system, but as things stand, the announced storage device will not be the last.
