DTEK and Fluence start commissioning 200MW/400MWh Ukraine portfolio

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They comprise a total of 689 Fluence Gridstack cubes, the company’s standard grid-scale DC block BESS solution, the latest iteration of which was launched in late 2023. It also has an AC block, the Smartstack, and a storage-as-transmission solution called the Ultrastack.

Commercial operations on the BESS projects are set to begin in October 2025 under a contract with the transmission system operator (TSO) of Ukraine Ukrenergo. Fluence was revealed as the system integrator for them in January this year.

Interestingly, this was the first project that Fluence has had to commission remotely, due to the ongoing war. 20 Ukrainian engineers and operations specialists completed advanced training on Fluence’s existing projects in Germany and Finland. This prepared them to respond to emergencies and quickly resolve potential malfunctions. Fluence will continue to support commissioning and operations through remote diagnostics, testing and performance monitoring.

Julian Nebreda, CEO of Fluence, said: “The remote commissioning approach we have introduced ensures continuity and operational efficiency amid travel restrictions and will also enable faster scaling of any future deployments.”

The projects will provide frequency and power reserve as well as balancing services to reinforce the electricity grid of Ukraine, particularly important during outages.

DTEK’s head of storage, Vadym Utkin, discussed ancillary services and Russia’s attacks on Ukraine in an interview with Energy-Storage.news late last year, at Solar Media’s Energy Storage Summit Central Eastern Europe (CEE) 2024 in Poland.

DTEK is also active in Poland, acquiring a 532MWh BESS project from developer Columbus in 2023.

The energy regulator in Romania has exempted energy storage resources from fees for charging from the grid.

A double-header of large-scale BESS project sales in the Baltic region, with Aura Power selling to UAB Karjerų linija and Danish Sun Energy selling a co-located one to Sunotec.

A subsidiary of Turkish conglomerate Güri̇ş Group has signed an EPC contract for a 98.6MW/196.4MWh project in Romania with local firm Simtel.

Renewable energy developer Ampyr Australia has reached financial close on its 300MW/600MWh Wellington Stage 1 BESS in New South Wales.

Utility Ignitis Group has taken a final investment decision (FID) on three large-scale battery storage projects in Lithuania.