Ignitis, a renewable energy company active in the Baltics and Poland, received its first delivery of storage equipment at its Kruonis Pumped Storage Plant, the company announced.
By 2027, the facility will operate with a capacity of 99 megawatts (MW) and nearly 200 megawatt-hours. The infrastructure includes 33 battery containers and 11 power conversion system units. These systems store electricity during periods of high production and release it when supply drops, which balances the grid and allows more renewable energy to join the power mix. The project is part of a broader strategy that includes three storage parks in Kelmė, Mažeikiai and Kruonis. To date, the company has invested 10 million euros in the Kruonis battery project, out of a total budget of more than 46 million euros. The expansion currently stands at 70 per cent completion.
A major milestone occurred recently with the delivery of the unit’s runner from Austria. This handcrafted component, designed for the specific infrastructure of the plant, aims for maximum efficiency. With the arrival of a transformer in January, all primary components now undergo integration into the system. Once finished, the expansion will increase the plant’s total capacity to 1 gigawatt (GW) and provide greater reliability for the Baltic energy network.
“The asset which we already have in our portfolio is Kruonis pump storage hydro plant with 900 MW of green flexibility capacity already installed, which is one of the largest energy storage facilities in Europe,” said Jonas Rimavičius, Ignitis’s CEO, according to Ignitis’s earnings call. “We are currently expanding it further by building an additional fifth unit of 110 MW of very flexible capacity, which is expected to be launched in 2026. After the expansion, this 1-GW plant will be able to run at full load for around 10 hours straight and provide a massive 10 GWh of storage capacity. Our three other green flexibility projects under construction. BESS projects in Kruonis, Kelmė, and Mažeikiai. All three are located next to our operating assets. The total capacity of these projects will reach 0.3 GW and 0.6 GWh.”