ENGIE has begun construction of a large battery farm at its plant in Vilvoorde, Belgium. This achievement follows the obtaining of the construction permit in July 2023 and the selection for capacity remuneration in October of the same year.
The BESS Vilvoorde will have an installed capacity of 200 MW on an area of 3.5 hectares, capable of storing 800 MWh of energy. Equipped with 320 sizable battery modules, it will release energy to the grid for up to four hours, enough to power 96,000 homes, equivalent to 160,000 5 kWh household batteries.
The project has a 15-year contract with Elia, the national grid operator.
ENGIE’s BESS Vilvoorde Project
The project will be launched in two phases: 100 MW will be operational in September 2025, followed by another 100 MW in January 2026. The company is also moving forward with two other projects BESS projects at Kallo (100 MW / 400 MWh) and Drogenbos (80 MW / 320 MWh), both in Belgium and already with permits obtained.
The BESS is part of the company’s commitment to develop large-scale flexibility solutions to efficiently integrate renewable energy into the grid. This project will contribute to the company’s will contribute to the company’s goal of reaching 10 GW of installed battery capacity by 2030 globally.
Future of the battery fleet
Sébastien Arbola, the company’s executive vice president of Flex Gen & Retail, stressed the importance of energy storage systems for the energy storage systems in batteries in a context of increasing renewable energy. These systems are key to managing the reliability and security of energy systems, absorbing production peaks and releasing energy when demand is high and production is low, thus accelerating the energy transition. energy transition .
Importantly, by the end of 2023, the company was already operating with 1.3 GW of battery capacity and had a further 3.6 GW under development.
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Source and photo: ENGIE