Irish state-owned power company ESB said recently that it has opened a 19MW/38MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Agada, County Cork. Its energy storage unit is provided by energy storage system integrator Fluence. The project is one of four energy storage projects jointly developed by ESB and Fluence in Ireland with a combined storage capacity of 308MWh.
Responsive battery energy storage systems will help provide grid stability and integrate more renewable resources into Ireland's power system, ESB said on July 15.
The project is the first of four battery storage projects jointly developed by the two companies in Ireland with a combined storage capacity of 308MWh. The 60MWh battery storage system being deployed at Inchicore in Dublin will also come online this year, while the Poolbeg battery storage project and the South Wall battery storage project will be deployed in early 2023.
Irish local players Powercomm Group and Kirby Group provide engineering, procurement and construction services for these battery storage projects.
These battery storage projects will help Ireland achieve its target of 80% renewable electricity by 2030 and help ESB achieve its net zero strategy by 2040.
According to the data, Ireland installed 708MW of battery storage systems in 2021, but plans to interconnect with the French electricity market mean that the company will reduce the deployment of battery storage systems in the next few years, with about 300MW of batteries expected to be deployed in 2024 energy storage system.
The company said that the commissioning of the Aghada battery energy storage project brings the total installed capacity of battery energy storage projects that Fluence has deployed or contracted around the world to nearly 5GW.
