Toki Power secures 300 MWh standalone BESS in Romania

Toki Power Holding GmbH has acquired a 150 MW standalone battery energy storage system (BESS) project in Romania.

The project has a two-hour duration, extendable to four hours, and is expected to be operational by the final quarter of next year. Toki Power says the deal, finalized late last week for an undisclosed sum, directly supports its strategy of hybridizing its market position with direct investment in its own flexible assets.

According to the company’s CEO, Yuri Katanov, Romania is one of the most dynamic energy markets in the EU. “Large-scale storage will play a crucial role in stabilizing the grid and supporting the accelerated deployment of renewables,” Katanov added.

A statement from the company adds its newly-acquired BESS will offer its clients services including improved supply-side integration and optimization of renewable generation assets, as well as demand side peak-shaving and load-management solutions.

It lists other benefits as greater resilience and reliability, supporting its clients requiring dispatchable power profiles, and enhanced balancing and flexibility services, ensuring lower cost and predictable energy supply for customers on the day-ahead and intra-markets.

“The management of own and third-party flexible assets allows us to offer outstanding balancing and route-to-market services to our partners with renewable assets,” commented Aurel Mindrican, Toki Power’s country manager for Romania. “We are happy to provide attractive terms on the current challenging balancing market.”

Bucharest-based Nyerges & Partners assisted Toki Power with the acquisition. The law firm explained the BESS is designed to deliver fast-response flexibility and grid support services, helping to integrate more renewable energy into the Romanian electricity system. Managing Partner Mihaela Nyerges added that Toki Power’s combination of trading expertise with direct investment in flexible assets “sets a new benchmark for how strategic investment and market innovation can accelerate the transition to a more flexible and resilient energy system.”

Toki Power is the electricity trading arm of Austria’s Renalfa Solarpro Group with a strong presence in Bulgaria, Northern Macedonia, Romania and Hungary. It says its clients in the region have around 1.5 GW of installed PV, wind and hydro capacity, alongside 1.3 GWh of operational BESS. The company has invested in a 110 MWh distributed portfolio of four-hour standalone BESS in Bulgaria, the first of which started operating in October.

Earlier this year, ESS News reported on a storage boom in Romania following an earlier decision from the country’s National Energy Regulatory Authority to eliminate double taxation on stored electricity.