National energy storage capacity is currently less than 1 GW, and eight times this capacity would be needed to cover peak demand. However, to cover the country’s entire energy needs, batteries with a combined capacity of 12 GW would be needed, said Eugen Pitic, Business Development & Sales Manager at YEO Romania.
“I smile when the Energy Ministry says it needs 4 GW of storage. Do you know how much real storage there is in Romania today? Less than 1 GW. We need at least 8 GW just to supplement peak consumption, because we have to take into account the charge-discharge coefficient of batteries, their lifetime and charge-discharge cycles,” Pitic said at the conference “Stepping stones for the BESS technologies development”, organised by Energynomics.
YEO is active in 32 countries and is building a battery factory in Turkey with an annual capacity of 5 GW. In Romania, it is developing 380 MW of projects, although it is encountering various technical and legislative problems related to approvals and authorisations. As batteries are discharged in the morning due to energy consumption during the night, and charge-discharge cycles influence storage needs, Romania needs 12 GW of installed capacity. It is estimated that by 2050 this need will double to more than 25 GW. Such storage capacity would allow Romania to solve the problem of balancing the energy system.
“We produce 90 or even 100 per cent of our photovoltaics between 9am and 5pm, while peak demand is between 6am and 8am in the morning and between 6pm and 10pm in the evening. So storage is absolutely necessary,” he added.
The conference “Stepping stones for the BESS technologies development” was organised by Energynomics with the support of our partners: AJ Brand, Alive Capital, BCR, Big Store, Elektra Renewable Support, EnergoBit, Enery, Enevo Group, Enexus. EVOLVE Energy Management Solutions, Huawei, Nofar Energy, Photomate, Prime Batteries Technology, Pixii AS, Renomia Gallagher, smartPulse, SolarToday, SolaX Power, Think Blu Solution, Wiren, WTW Romania, YEO.