Tank storage company Vopak has marked its energy into the BESS sector with a final investment decision (FID) for a 200MW/800MWh BESS in the Netherlands, which recently entered into a first-of-its-kind agreement with TSO TenneT.
The company has completed a previously announced acquisition of developer Green Energy Storage (GES) and taken FID on its flagship 200MW/800MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) project in Oosterhout, in the Brabant region of northern Netherlands. Vopak’s investments into GES and the project total €230 million (US$262 million).
The Oosterhout project will be among the largest in the Netherlands when it goes into operations in H1 2028. Utility Greenchoice will be offtaker for 50% of the capacity under an 8-year toll.
Grid-scale BESS in the country are typically split into tranches with a variety of offtakers. The market has picked up in the last few years after having been slower to take off than its neighbours in Belgium and Germany, see all our coverage here.
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A Vopak spokersperson confirmed to Energy-Storage.news that the Oosterhout project is the same BESS project that GES entered into a deal with Dutch TSO TenneT for in April this year, labelled as the first of its kind.
GES and TenneT agreed a flexible connection agreement (FCA) called a time-bound transmission right (TDTR), as well as a capacity control contract (CSC). You can read all the details about that in our coverage of the detail at the time, but ultimately the arrangement aims to help TenneT manage congestion on the Dutch grid, which is a huge challenge.
FCAs are also common in Germany, but are highly varied depending on the local DNO or TSO.
