State-owned utility and power generator Eesti Energia has completed and put into commercial operation the first large-scale BESS in Estonia.

IPP E energija Group has started building what it claims is the largest ‘private’ BESS project in Lithuania, a few weeks after the Baltic region decoupled from Russia’s electricity grid.

Battery storage played a crucial role in the Baltic region’s switch from Russia over to the Continental European grid over the weekend, coinciding with Lithuania launching a €100 million storage support scheme.

The government of Estonia will financially back a 500MW pumped hydro energy storage project to meet the country’s need for long-duration energy storage, as the Baltics prepare to disconnect from Russia’s grid this weekend.

Lithuania can move ahead with a scheme to provide €180 million (US$200 million) in grants to energy storage projects after it was approved by the EU.

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.

AST, the transmission system operator (TSO) of Latvia, has selected Rolls-Royce Solutions for two battery energy storage system (BESS) projects totalling 80MW of power and 160MWh of capacity.

Poland looks set to lead battery storage deployments in Eastern Europe, with 9GW of battery storage projects offered grid connections and 16GW registered for the ongoing capacity market auction.

The Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) energy storage market is in its infancy but has the potential to leapfrog more developed markets with Poland in a leading position, said executives from Fluence.