Once operational in early 2026, the battery energy storage park in Vilvoorde will be able to store enough surplus renewable energy to power 96,000 homes for four hours. Tractebel is Owner''s Engineer on this landmark sustainability project.
Renewable energy plays a key role in the fight against climate change. But sources like wind and solar are not always available, and the growing share of renewable energy generation can cause fluctuations in the electricity supply. Large-scale battery energy storage facilities are quickly becoming the essential link to absorb these imbalances and help support the electricity grid.
The battery energy storage system (BESS) park in Vilvoorde, Belgium, one of the largest in Europe, will cover 3.5 hectares – about the size of 3.3 football fields. The site will accommodate 320 battery modules, measuring 25 x 4 x 3 metres. Each of these will be combined with an inverter, a transformer, and the electrical installations required to connect them to the high-voltage grid. The park will consist of two 100-MW clusters, each connected to the 150-kV Elia grid via a 125-MVA step-up transformer.
When fully operational, the park will have a storage capacity of 800 MWh of power to release to the grid for four hours. This is equivalent to 160,000 5-kWh residential batteries that when fully charged, can cover the power consumption of a whopping 96,000 households.
Tractebel''s Transmission & Distribution and Power Systems Studies teams, together with partner Laborolec, are acting as Owner''s Engineer for client ENGIE Flexible Generation to carry out the following support activities throughout the implementation of the project:
Our experts began their mandate in November 2023. The project consists of two phases, with 100 MW of batteries to be commissioned in September 2025, and another 100 MW slated for January 2026.
When there is an abundance of wind or solar energy, batteries can store electricity and inject it back into the grid at times when there is insufficient renewable generation. Their contribution will become increasingly important in the coming years, both in case of shortages and possible oversupply during the warmer months.
"Tractebel''s teams are proud of the key role we have in the Vilvoorde energy storage park. The project will bring Belgium closer to its renewable energy targets, thereby also helping to pave the way for Europe''s ambitious emissions reduction goals," says Filip De Vrij, Tractebel Project Manager. "As the transition to renewable energy continues to forge ahead, battery storage systems are the way forward to compensate for fluctuations in renewable generation. From now on, expect to hear a lot more about BESS projects."
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Nala Renewables’ lithium-ion battery energy storage system (BESS) will come online at metals conglomerate Nyrstar’s zinc smelting operation in Balen, in Belgium’s Flemish region, by the end of 2022.
“The international energy crisis and Russia’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine make it clearer than ever that we need to invest heavily in clean energy production close to home in order to reduce our dependence on foreign countries. Unfortunately, renewable energy is not available every minute of the day, so it is crucial to provide for its storage,” said Zuhal Demir, Flemish Flemish Minister of Energy and Environment who attended the project’s construction launch ceremony.
The Balen site will provide grid-balancing and stability-enhancing services to Belgium''s grid in addition to shifting renewable energy production to peak demand periods. It recently scored a win in Belgium’s capacity auction held by grid operator ELIA, one of four BESS projects to do so.
It is the joint-largest battery storage project in Belgium under development along with with one in Ruien being developed by a Japanese-Belgian JV, which also won in ELIA’s auction.
Nala Renewables aims to have 4GW of of renewable energy projects “operating, in construction, or in late-stage development by 2025,” it says. It has doubled its target from one year ago.
Nyrstar is a portfolio company of Trafigura and the companies have said Nala will build and operate projects adjacent to Trafigura''s mining, port and smelting infrastructure projects.
Battery storage projects in Belgium have taken off quicker than in the rest of mainland Europe thanks to more storage-friendly market rules. The market has some strong drivers for storage including a lack of grid flexibility and good interconnection with other markets.
The European subsidiary of Japanese engineering consultancy Nippon Koei announced the news today, together with its development partner on the project, Aquila Clean Energy EMEA.
The 25MW/100MWh project is in the town of Ruien, East Flanders, on the site of what was an 800MW coal-fired power station. As with other projects of its type around the world, the BESS plant was able to leverage the thermal power plant site''s existing infrastructure, including the connection point to the Belgian high voltage grid.
This meant the project was able to leapfrog the challenges of connecting to an already congested grid – something that has been a barrier to rapid energy storage, and other new energy resource, deployment in many parts of the world, including the neighbouring Netherlands.
An exact date for when commissioning took place was not given but a release sent to media including this site noted that the Ruien BESS is already participating in short-term grid-balancing flexibility markets.
As noted by Energy-Storage.news when the project achieved financial close in November 2021, shortly after netting a long-term Capacity Remuneration Mechanism (CRM) contract, it had been originally scheduled to go into operation in Q4 2022. The CRM was newly introduced in 2021 and the contract for Ruien was won in the inaugural September 2021 auction.
At that time of financial close, Nippon Koei Energy Europe said it was working with Belgian renewable energy company Yuso on the project, with the engineering company acting as lead developer. Nippon Koei acquired a 29% stake in Yuso back in 2019.
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