DTEK enlists Fluence for 200MW/400MWh of grid-supporting BESS in Ukraine

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The projects were awarded amidst a period of heavy aerial attacks on the country’s critical grid infrastructure by Russia, and DTEK said at the time that BESS was pivotal to the ‘decentralisation of Ukraine’s energy system and ending Russia’s energy terror’.

The 200MW/400MWh of capacity will be spread across six projects, ranging from 20-50MW, which the companies need to complete by October 2025 in order to help mitigate against power grid outages during the 2025/26 winter season. They are being developed by DTEK subsidiary DTEK Renewables.

The BESS will provide frequency and power balancing services and will be equipped with grid-forming capabilities, which would enable services like inertia and black start (although these were not specified in the announcement). They are part of DTEK’s #FightforLight campaign, which aims to keep power online during extreme conditions of war.

DTEK’s energy storage lead Vadym Utkin discussed the projects at Solar Media’s Energy Storage Summit Central Eastern Europe (CEE) 2024 in Warsaw, shortly after the contract awards with Ukrenergo.

Energy storage is seen more widely as a way to help Europe solve the energy crisis which started with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as stated later that year by the European Commission’s VP Maroš Šefčovič.

Fluence has track record in the CEE region, and nearby, particularly on TSO-led projects, having deployed 200MW of storage-as-transmission projects in Lithuania and numerous TSO and non-TSO projects in Germany.

Distributed BESS projects in Ukraine to help mitigate against power outages are also being developed via a partnership between the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine (SAEE) and Norwegian LFP gigafactory firm Morrow Batteries, announced in August last year.

DTEK is also active in BESS in neighbouring Poland, acquiring a 133MW project from developer Columbus Energy last year.

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Utility Eneco will optimise a BESS project in the Netherlands that, at 31.6MW/126.4MWh, will be the country’s largest when it comes online before the end of the year.

Ofgem, the UK’s energy market regulator, is considering raising the minimum duration of technologies eligible for a long-duration energy storage (LDES) support scheme.

France-headquartered IPP Neoen has started construction work on a 45MW/90MWh BESS project in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, set to come online in 2026.