GreenGo expects half its 998 MWh Italian batteries to enter MACSE auction

Italian independent power producer GreenGo says it has secured authorization for a 120 MW/480 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in San Sostene, in the Calabrian province of Catanzaro. According to GreenGo CTO Fabio Amico, the Calabrian approval raises the company’s prospects in the Mercato a termine degli stoccaggi (MACSE) auction planned for Sep. 30.

“Our 998 MWh project pipeline in the ‘South and Sicily’ area is fully eligible for the first MACSE auction,” said Amico. Bologna-based GreenGo already has authorization for a 50 MW site in Tagliata, a 49.5 MW project in Cuvelli, and a 30 MW facility in Montagna. However, the company expects that approximately half of this candidate capacity will actually be submitted to the auction.

“We expect a very competitive auction,” GreenGo told pv magazine Italia. “Our strategy will be to target a large number of plants, including hybrid solutions, between MACSE and market solutions, focusing on technology providers capable of ensuring plant flexibility and modularity.”

The San Sostene standalone BESS will connect to the grid via a 150 kV connection in Calabria. GreenGo said there are potentially more lucrative business models than MACSE subsidy in the event its latest approved BESS is deemed ineligible for the auction.

“We are already exploring market solutions based on both tolling and profit-sharing approaches, combined with the capacity market,” said the company. “For these types of solutions, the differential with the highly-competitive MACSE market is completely irrelevant and, in some market areas, could even lead to improved business plan returns.”

The developer expects half its 249.5 MW of Italian BESS will be MACSE eligible.

GreenGo said it acquired the San Sostene site last year, managed its engineering and its authorization application and secured the green light within 13 months.

“In industrial terms, the operation marks a clear acceleration,” wrote GreenGo in a press release about the latest site. “With San Sostene, GreenGo brings the share of its BESS systems authorized in the last six months to 200 MW and the total authorized projects to 250 MW.”

The company said its total BESS development pipeline runs to around 400 MW, as part of a 1.73 GW portfolio of battery and renewable energy projects comprising 75 projects in 12 Italian regions. GreenGo said 40 MW of the facilities are under construction and 693 MW are authorized or ready to build.

The San Sostene site was among the 273 MW of BESS approved on Monday by the Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Sicurezza energetica (MASE) in the southern Italian regions of Calabria, Campania, and Puglia.

From pv magazine Italia.