Developers Taaleri Energia and Merus Power have partnered to deploy a 30MW/36MWh battery energy storage system in Finland, one of the country’s largest.
The two will oversee the development of the battery storage system in Lempäälä in the southern municipality of Pirkanmaa, near Tampere, which will support the local electricity grid. It is expected to be built by April 2024.
Merus Power is the developer of the project and has overall responsibility for the turnkey delivery, and Taaleri Energia will acquire the project in the second quarter of calendar 2023 through its Taaleri SolarWind III Fund after it closes.
The battery unit will mainly support the balancing of production and consumption in the electricity grid through providing frequency reserve services to Transmission System Operator (TSO) Fingrid. The companies said the project will be the largest energy storage unit operating in frequency reserve by capacity (MWh) in Finland.
Merus Power will also provide the energy management system (EMS) platform to optimise the battery’s financial performance as part of the deal. The investment totals around €20 million (US$21.5 million) and includes an option to increase the size of the unit in the future.
A product brochure for Merus’ energy storage system (ESS) unit says it uses lithium-ion cells but does not specify the type.
“We have been systematically building expertise in understanding the electricity market and solving customer needs for years. This agreement with Taaleri Energia is strong proof of the functionality of our energy storage strategy and our position at the top of this value chain,” said Kari Tuomala, CEO of Merus Power.
Taaleri Energia recently recruited a new investment director for energy storage in Ville Rimali, who came from five years at Wärtsilä where he was most recently Director, Growth & Development and Business Support, Africa & Europe.
The battery storage market in Finland has been relatively quiet in the past year compared to neighbouring Sweden. A few large-scale projects have been added to wind farms, like ones for power generators Ilmatar Energy and EPV Energy reported on by Energy-Storage.news.
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