PGE is planning to launch a tender for a large-scale energy storage facility in Żarnowiec with a capacity of up to 263 MW and a minimum capacity of 900 MWh in late July/early June, the Polish Energy Group said on Tuesday. It added that this is a procurement procedure for design and construction.
The large-scale battery electricity storage facility at ESP Żarnowiec will be the largest of its kind in the whole of Europe. It will allow for the provision of regulatory system services to the Transmission System Operator, as well as balancing of local onshore wind farms and future PGE wind farms in the Baltic Sea, PGE explained.
The company also noted that the project already has a signed connection agreement, a special purpose vehicle in place, the first energy storage licence promise in Poland and an application for general certification for the power market.
PGE added that the project will be located in the vicinity of the PGE Group’s Żarnowiec Peak and Pumped Storage Power Plant.
The increase in the share of renewable energy sources in the domestic generation mix entails an increase in the power system’s demand for energy storage. Therefore, we are accelerating our investments in this area
PGE also stressed that the Żarnowiec energy storage project is seeking to obtain co-financing from the NERP, which means that meeting deadlines will be ‘crucial’.
‘Inflexible coal-fired units are unable to operate at suitably low minimums during the sunny midday and quickly increase their output in the evening. Added to this is the almost total lack of energy storage. This combination forces the operator to limit the operation of renewables – despite the fact that they produce almost free energy at that time,’ – noted the Energy Forum report ‘Energy Transformation in Poland’, published at the end of May.
The report added that 74 GWh of electricity was lost in this way in 2023 alone, but that the scale of the problem is ‘growing rapidly’. ‘Between January and mid-May this year, more than 400 GWh of energy was subjected to non-market redispatch (top-down reduction of production – PAP). This is as much as nearly half a million households consumed in this period’. – calculated senior analyst at Forum Energii Marcin Dusiło.
As reported by PGE, the total net electricity production in 2023 at PGE’s generating units was 56.77 TWh, 14 per cent less than in 2022. Production from lignite was 29.8 TWh (25 per cent less y-o-y), from hard coal 18.8 TWh (down 8 per cent y-o-y) and from natural gas 4.2 TWh (51 per cent more than in 2022).
The company noted that total generation from PGE Group renewable sources reached 2.7 TWh. In addition, generation from pumped storage power plants amounted to 1.2 TWh, 26 per cent more than in 2022. It added that the volume of distributed electricity amounted to 38.9 TWh.
According to data provided by the company, net electricity production in Q1 2024 at PGE Group generating units was 14.60 TWh, 7 per cent lower than in Q1 2023. Production from lignite was 7.63 TWh (down 7 per cent year-on-year), from hard coal 4.32 TWh (down 12 per cent year-on-year) and from natural gas 1.44 TWh (down 3 per cent year-on-year in 2023).
Total generation from PGE Group renewable sources in Q1 2024 reached 0.89 TWh. In addition, pumped storage generation reached 0.32 TWh, 10 per cent more than in the same period in 2023.
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