Hungary buys battery grid storage

Due to be operational in May 2025, it will consist of three shipping-container-sized units, installed at a power station in Litér, Veszprém.

“The project will verify the use of grid storage batteries for storing energy during times of surplus and discharging it when there is a shortage,” according to NGK. “It will also examine the provision of adjustment capacity to the ancillary service market, which trades energy supply to eliminate gaps in supply and demand of electric energy.”

This is the third order for such batteries in Hungary, all mediated by Engineering company Duna Center Therm Uzemi Szolgaltato.

The first, completed and handed over in July, is a single container 1.45MWh 250kW battery at the Centre for Energy Research in Budapest.

The second, identical to the Budapest installation and due to be commissioned in December, is industrial.

It is at manufacturer Ganz Transformers and Electric Rotating Machines in Tápiószele.

Ganz has a 2,830MWh solar farm on its land (left), with 4,040 panels over 3.7ha, built last year by Forest-Vill.

Eventually, the Ganz site, which has a total annual consumption between 3.5 and 3.6GWh, will have two batteries with a combined capacity of 5.2MWh: the high-capacity sodium-sulphur battery, plus a high-rate lithium-ion battery to boost charge and discharge capability.

According to NGK, grid batteries are of particular interest to Hungary because the country’s mostly flat terrain precludes building pumped-storage hydro power stations for grid peak-cutting.

It added that the country has legislated for carbon neutrality by 2050, with a goal of 90% low-carbon power generation 2030 – the Ganz factory has funding from two national schemes: ‘Factory Rescue Programme’ for the NaS battery and ‘Energy Use Optimisation Programme’ for the solar farm.