KNESS plans to install about 200 MW of energy storage in 2026 – top executive
Renewable energy company KNESS commissioned 100 MW of battery energy storage systems (BESS) this year and plans to install around 200 MW next year, said Serhiy Kravchuk, Director of Power Trading and Supply at KNESS and Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Wind Energy Association's committee on energy storage development.
"Yes, indeed, this year we commissioned more than 80 MW of BESS to provide ancillary services to Ukrenergo. If we speak about the installed capacity of all facilities that were commissioned this year, it exceeds 100 MW," Kravchuk said at a year-end press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.
According to him, the company plans to add approximately another 200 MW of energy storage capacity next year.
"As for energy storage, today we are actively developing such projects virtually across the entire country. We are working both on land issues and on technical conditions, grid connection matters, and we have a development pipeline, if we speak exclusively about our own facilities, of about 200 MW," Kravchuk said.
In terms of financing energy storage projects, KNESS is relying on its own investments and is also holding talks with both international and domestic investors, he added.
He recalled that this year the company implemented a 30 MW energy storage project jointly with Oschadbank and pointed out that there are no problems with raising financing.
"Today, banks are looking quite positively both at projects that have won Ukrenergo's special auctions and at projects implemented for energy time-shifting. Both state-owned and private banks are financing renewable energy facilities with energy storage, as well as standalone energy storage projects. The only fundamental requirement is the stability of the regulatory framework," the KNESS executive said.
He also said that next year the company will continue to develop its aggregation business. According to him, this relates directly to operational activities and the management of already built facilities.
"We are talking specifically about aggregation. The transmission system operator is now providing the technical capability to delegate the rights and obligations acquired by the winners of special auctions to a third party, that is, an aggregator," Kravchuk explained.
This, he said, opens up new opportunities for ancillary service providers, for example, not to suspend operations during repairs but instead to use other generating units within the aggregated group.
"The second market segment consists of those special auction winners who, with their equipment, obtained the right to provide a service but for some reason cannot do so. And here we see an entire pool of opportunities for an aggregator precisely in managing such facilities," the KNESS executive said.
As reported, at the same press conference, Chairman of the Ukrainian Wind Energy Association Andriy Konechenkov said that Ukraine currently has a total installed energy storage capacity of 534 MW (ESS, BESS).