Greece to announce tender for energy storage within the week

With a fast track schedule, the Waste, Energy and Water Regulatory Authority (RAAEF) will announce, within the next two days, the first tender for investment and operational support for energy storage units (standalone batteries), which is expected to take place at the beginning of July, with the submission of bids by interested investors. After all, according to the relevant ministerial decision, the minimum and maximum duration from the announcement to the deadline for submission of tenders are set at 21 and 28 days respectively.

List of projects

This will be followed by the evaluation of bids by the RAAEF in order to complete the list of shortlisted projects by the beginning of August. The large penetration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in the electricity generation mix and the limited electrical space in the electrical networks make it necessary to immediately promote electrical energy storage projects in order to solve the problem with the targeting of RES projects on the one hand and ensuring the stability of the system on the other which is at risk during periods of high green energy production and low demand.

Three tenders

The total auctioned capacity, through three competitive bidding processes, amounts to 1,000 MW (megawatts). The first auction to be announced by Friday will concern 400 MW projects. It will be followed by the second for 300 MW within the third quarter of the year and the third for 400 MW within the fourth quarter of 2023 which will only concern projects that will be installed exclusively in the delignitification Zones of the Kozani, Florina and Megalopolis areas. In the first two auctions, projects that are planned to be installed throughout the country, except for Crete, can participate.

The deadlines

All three competitive processes will have to take place within 2023 in order to bring the shortlisted stations into operation by 31 December 2025, according to the timetables set by the Recovery Fund from which the 200 million has been committed. euros for the implementation of the tenders. A request must have been submitted to ADMIE to activate the connection of the projects until September 30, 2025.

Starting price

The starting price for the first tender for battery energy storage projects is set at €115,000 per megawatt per year (€/MW/year). In other words, in order to claim the granting of investment and operating aid, investors should submit offers that will move below the specific amount. The owners of the stations that will finally qualify in the first two tenders will receive an investment aid of 200,000 euros per megawatt (€/MW). In addition, they will also receive operational aid for ten years from the issuance of the operating license of the storage stations, which is a condition for the start of payment of the operational aid by the Administrator of Renewable Energy Sources and Guarantees of Origin (DAPEEP).

Maximum power limit

For each participating project, the maximum power limit is 100 MW. Also, by ministerial decision, a maximum power award limit per participant cumulatively for the A’ and B’ competitive process has been set at 100 MW, while a maximum limit per investor in each competitive process has been set at 25% of the auctioned power. In addition, a maximum power award limit per participant has been set cumulatively for the total of the auctioned power in all three competitive procedures of 2023, which is set at 25% of the total auctioned power, i.e. a limit of 250 MW.

Projects

In total, it is planned to support a portfolio of projects with a total capacity of 1 GW (gigawatt), however, the investment interest is multiple times as it happened in previous years with the projects of Renewable Energy Sources (RES). It is indicative that, in total, until March, the Regulatory Authority for EnergyRAE had issued 356 licenses, with a total capacity of 24 GW, of which 306 licenses (18.7 GW) concern storage units. In fact, projects with a capacity of 5.3 GW have matured in terms of licensing and have submitted a request to ADMIE for connection to the grid.