PGE Group (Polish Energy Group) is planning big investment.
PGE has announced its plans to launch a tender for the design and construction of a large-scale battery electricity storage facility in Żarnowiec. The investment, with a capacity of up to 263 MW and a minimum capacity of 900 MWh, will be the largest facility of this type all around Europe. The tender is scheduled for the end of June, beginning of July 2024.
The energy storage project in Żarnowiec is a turnkey project. The connection agreement and a promise of a concession for energy storage has already been signed. The warehouse will support the balancing of local wind farms and future PGE wind farms in the Baltic Sea. Dariusz Marzec, president of PGE, emphasized that investments in energy storage are necessary to increase the stability of the national power system (NES) in the face of the energy transformation.
The increasing share of renewable energy sources in the national energy mix is associated with the growing demand for energy storage facilities. PGE is applying for funding from the National Recovery Plan (KPO), which emphasizes the importance of meeting the project implementation deadlines.
The report "Forum Energii" draws attention to problems related to the inflexibility of coal units and the lack of energy storage, which leads to limited production from renewable sources. In 2023, 74 GWh of energy was lost in this way, and in the first half of 2024 over 400 GWh, which corresponds to the consumption of nearly half a million households.
PGE's net electricity production in 2023 amounted to 56.77 TWh, which is a 14% decrease compared to the previous year. Energy production from lignite decreased by 25%, reaching 29.8 TWh, and from hard coal by 8%, reaching 18.8 TWh. Production from natural gas increased by 51%, reaching 4.2 TWh.
Total energy production from renewable sources amounted to 2.7 TWh, and production in pumped storage plants increased by 26%, reaching 1.2 TWh. The volume of distributed electricity amounted to 38.9 TWh.
In the first quarter of 2024, PGE's net electricity production amounted to 14.60 TWh, which is a 7% decrease compared to the same period in 2023. Production from lignite amounted to 7.63 TWh (decrease by 7%), from hard coal 4.32 TWh (decrease by 12%), and from natural gas 1.44 TWh (decrease by 3%).
Energy production from renewable sources in the first quarter of 2024 reached 0.89 TWh, and production in pumped storage plants amounted to 0.32 TWh, an increase of 10% compared to the same period in 2023.
PGE's plans to build an energy storage facility in Żarnowiec are a step towards increasing the stability and efficiency of the national power system, while supporting the development of renewable energy sources in Poland.
Commentaires