Elenger to invest nearly EUR 2 million in a battery energy storage system

Elenger, the largest privately owned energy company in the Finland-Baltic region, continues to focus on renewable energy and has decided to install a battery energy storage system (BESS). The investment will amount to just under EUR 2 million, and the battery system will be installed at a solar park in Nīca, near Liepaja, which Elenger opened in June this year.

Solar park in Nīca

The battery energy storage system will provide a total capacity of 4 megawatts (MW) and a storage capacity of 8 megawatt-hours (MWh). With this amount of energy, one electric car would be able to cover a distance of 50 000 kilometers, or 1 500 households would be supplied with the electricity they need for one day.

“We aim to diversify our energy portfolio, which includes developing renewable electricity production. This past summer we took a major step towards this goal by opening our first solar power plant in Latvia, which successfully provides the amount of electricity consumed by around a thousand households. The battery energy storage system will enable Elenger to further improve its position in the electricity market by optimizing the solar power plant’s operation in line with the Nord Pool exchange price, as well as contributing to the new balancing capacity market, which provides optimal balancing costs for all electricity system participants. Namely, the battery systems will help reduce electricity prices in Latvia, as they will be charged during sunny periods when electricity generation is higher than demand, and discharged in the evenings,” says Dāvids Skulte, Elenger Chairman of the Board. “By combining the battery system with solar energy, in addition to achieving the above objective, we will also promote an efficient use of infrastructure. The main benefit for electricity consumers, including Elenger customers, will be the opportunity to use more renewable energy, because with the battery system, electricity can also be stored and used when it is most in demand.”

The core element of the battery energy storage system is made up of more than 9000 lithium iron phosphate batteries, an advanced control system, and 20 inverters, while cooling and fire suppression systems ensure a safe operation of the whole system.

The project is scheduled to be completed in less than a year. Work started immediately after the completion of the solar park in Nīca in June this year, and Elenger plans to connect the battery storage system to the solar power plant in Nīca before the summer of 2025. Like the solar power plant project, Elenger is implementing this project in cooperation with LLC OMS, one of the largest electrical contractors in the Kurzeme region.

As reported, the first Elenger solar power plant in Nīca covers a total area of 5.3 hectares (ha) and its nearly 7 000 solar panels generate 4.5 gigawatt hours (GWh) of energy per year. EUR 2.5 million were invested to build the solar power plant.