An electrochemical electricity storage facility with a capacity of at least 200 MW and a capacity of at least 820 MWh will be built by PGE in Żarnowiec, about 10 km from the shore of the Baltic Sea. The project is in line with the objectives of the European Green Deal.

“The project is the first in Poland to be granted a concession for energy storage by the regulator”, stressed PGE CEO Wojciech Dąbrowski. PGE Group’s strategic goal in the area of energy storage is to achieve 800 MW of new energy storage installations in Poland in 2030.

“The installations will ensure safe system integration of new renewable energy sources, contribute to the stabilisation of the power system and improve the country’s energy security. The energy storage project in Żarnowiec is in line with the objectives of the European Green Deal in terms of better integration of electricity from renewable sources and reducing the use of high-carbon conventional units”, Dąbrowski added.

The project to build a large-scale Battery Electricity Storage Facility (BMEE) at the Żarnowiec Peak and Pumped Storage Power Station (ESP) with a capacity of no less than 200 MW and over 820 MWh is one of the largest projects of its kind on a European scale.

The entire project involves combining the 716 MW Żarnowiec ESP with the BMEE into an innovative hybrid plant with a capacity of at least 921 MW and a capacity of over 4.6 GWh. It will be able to provide a full range of regulatory system services, serve to ‘rebuild’ the power system or supply energy to approximately 200,000 homes for a period of at least five hours, with an average load of 5 kW per home.

In addition, the storage facility will serve as technical and commercial balancing for volatile renewable energy sources – onshore and offshore wind farms and photovoltaic farms owned by the PGE Group.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński