C-energy opens 300 million Kč battery storage facility in Planá nad Lužnicí, Czechia

C-energy, which produces heat for municipalities in the Tábor region and generates electricity, has commissioned a second battery storage facility at its site in Planá nad Lužnicí. It has a power output of 15 megawatts and a capacity of 22 megawatt-hours. The new battery could supply the electricity consumption of approximately 100,000 households for one hour. The lithium batteries have a lifespan of 6,500 cycles. The investment in the new battery storage facility amounted to 300 million crowns. Company representatives told the Czech News Agency (ČTK) this today at the official opening.

The company launched its first battery storage facility at the Planá nad Lužnicí site in 2019. The combined capacity of the two facilities now stands at 26 MWh, making it the largest in the Czech Republic.

“The battery storage facility consists of 60 battery cabinets. If we put the batteries through two cycles a day, they will have a lifespan of 10 to 20 years. If we use them more gently, for example to provide balancing services, they could last even longer,” said Josef Havlík, who is responsible for development projects at the company.

“We use battery systems to complement our technological solutions so that the energy supply system is as robust and stable as possible, and as little exposed as possible to any external fluctuations—whether in fuel, gas, wood chips or any of our other energy sources. We also want it to be independent of fluctuations in the transmission system,” said Michal Šušák, majority owner of C-energy.

Both battery storage facilities in Planá nad Lužnicí are connected to other technologies: a 25MW biomass unit, gas-fired cogeneration units with a combined output of 60 MW, and a photovoltaic power plant. In the future, they will also take in energy generated by a new fluidized-bed boiler that will burn mixed municipal waste.

“C-energy is an example of how the energy sector can be transformed into a modern one. Historically, this site ran on coal. The company employs people and acts responsibly, earning money in South Bohemia and spending it here too. It supports the Tábor hospice and Tábor’s hockey team,” added South Bohemian Governor Martin Kuba (ODS).

C-energy will commission its third battery storage facility in the first quarter of 2025 at the site of the former heating plant in Tábor. It will have an output and capacity of 8MW/8MWh. It will complement an existing gas-fired cogeneration unit and an electric boiler.

This summer, a battery storage facility with similar output was opened by the Decci group near Vraňany in the Mělník region. The facility, with an output of 20 megawatts and a capacity of 22 megawatt-hours, is part of a hybrid power source with a total installed capacity of 52.4 megawatts.

The first similar facility appeared in 2017 in Prakšice in the Uherské Hradiště region, with a capacity of 1.2 megawatt-hours. ČEZ has had an experimental four-megawatt storage facility at the Tušimice power plant since 2019, while energy company E.ON commissioned a smaller battery in Mydlovary a year earlier. Last January, SUAS GROUP, an affiliate of Sokolovská uhelná, built a storage facility with a capacity of 7.45 megawatt-hours near Královské Poříčí.