Slovenské elektrárne has launched a tender to build a battery energy storage system at Čierny Váh, Slovakia’s largest pumped storage hydropower plant.
The utility published the tender last week, with bids due by Nov. 27. It covers battery supply, engineering, substation work, construction, testing and training. The Slovak power producer, which is controlled by Czech energy group EPH, has not disclosed a contract value or award criteria.
The company’s project page describes a battery of up to 120 MW/480 MWh, but Slovak media reports indicate that the final parameters could still change. That is larger than the up to 80 MW/160 MWh that the company and the European Union have previously described. Slovak daily Denník SME has reported that the batteries will be housed in containers and that the project includes a substation expansion and a new transformer.
The battery is part of a wider upgrade of the 735 MW plant. Slovenské elektrárne has signed contracts with Voith Hydro and GE Vernova to convert two of its turbine-generators to variable-speed operation. It has reportedly said that that the investment exceeds €200 million ($223.9 million) and is due for completion in 2031.
The company said the upgrade will widen the plant’s balancing range to between -712 MW and +790 MW. It said the hybrid site will be able to provide primary, secondary and tertiary balancing, with combined efficiency of up to 77%.
The European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) awarded a €62.63 million grant under the Connecting Europe Facility for the variable-speed works, which began in July. CINEA said the battery is not part of the grant-funded phase, but both are part of the same EU Project of Common Interest.
Slovenské elektrárne commissioned a 36 MW/72 MWh battery at the site of its former Nováky coal plant in July, which provides frequency containment reserve. The Bratislava-based company is 66% owned by Slovak Power Holding, a unit of Czech energy group EPH, and 34% by the Slovak state.
Other European utilities are also pairing batteries with pumped hydro. Enel, for example, has announced plans to retrofit battery storage at a century-old pumped hydro plant in Italy. Iberdrola, meanwhile, has switched on a pumped hydro-battery project in Spain, and a hybrid pumped hydro-BESS project in Finland has doubled its planned battery capacity.
The post Slovak utility tenders battery for largest pumped hydro plant appeared first on Energy Storage.
