SUAS GROUP launches Czech Republic's largest battery storage facility

SUAS GROUP today launched the Czech Republic's largest battery storage facility at the Lipnice photovoltaic power plant site in the Sokolov region. The BESS Lipnice facility has a capacity of 120 megawatt-hours (MWh) and an installed output of 57 megawatts (MW). The CZK 400 million project is the result of cooperation between SUAS GROUP and Slovakia's EIF group. It is the group's second battery storage facility; the first was built near Královské Poříčí in the Sokolov region in 2023 and has a capacity of 7.45 MWh. Work is already under way on another facility, representatives of SUAS GROUP, the sister group of Sokolovská uhelná, said today.

The Lipnice facility's output is equivalent to roughly one-third of the output of Sokolovská uhelná's power plant in Tisová. It could supply a town the size of Sokolov with electricity for ten hours.

The facility can be used to maintain the stability of the Czech power system, provide ancillary services for ČEPS, or trade on the day-ahead and intraday electricity markets. "It stores energy from the grid when there is a surplus, which would otherwise cause overvoltage problems and bring the system close to fault conditions. Conversely, when consumption is high and energy is scarce, the battery supplies energy," BESS Lipnice board member Miroslav Rohla described the basic operating principle.

The project's economics will depend on effectively combining the facility's different uses. According to BESS Lipnice board member and EIF's director for the Czech Republic Jiří Strnad, given current low prices on the balancing services market, it will rely primarily on trading on the day-ahead and intraday markets. "At EIF, we have developed our own algorithmic control system for the facility, which continuously assesses the situation on individual markets and can significantly improve its economics. If attractive prices emerge on the balancing services market and this aligns with the chosen strategy, we will of course deploy the battery there as well," Strnad said. He believes that, thanks to a combination of markets and smart algorithmic control, the facility will pay for itself in five to eight years.

Construction of the battery storage facility in Lipnice was challenging from both a technical and logistical perspective. "In a short period of time, we transported, assembled and commissioned technology with a total weight exceeding 1,500 tonnes. This included 144 battery cabinets, 18 power converter units and nine transformer skids. This was followed by the connection of power and communication cabling, configuration of the control system and the gradual commissioning of the entire facility," said Aleš Zázvorka, owner and CEO of IBG Česko.

BESS Lipnice will likely remain the Czech Republic's largest battery storage facility for only a few months. A larger facility, roughly twice the size, is being built in northern Czechia by energy group ČEZ. SUAS GROUP also plans to build a facility of the same size as the one in Lipnice next year in Tisová. In both cases, the existing infrastructure is an advantage, reducing construction costs, added Pavel Tomek, chairman of the boards of Sokolovská uhelná and SUAS GROUP. The new battery storage facility is also part of SUAS GROUP's EnergyHub currently under development.