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French energy group ENGIE has announced the development of its first hybrid energy project in Europe, co-locating wind energy generation with battery energy storage systems (BESS). The facility is being built in Băleni, Galați County, located in southeastern Romania.
The storage asset is being installed directly within ENGIE’s operational 50 MW Băleni wind farm, which has been active since 2013. The grid-connected battery will feature a power capacity of 5 MW and a storage capacity of 10 MWh, allowing it to deliver maximum electricity output to the grid for a continuous two-hour window. The unit is scheduled to be fully commissioned by the end of this year.
The deployment is designed to smooth out the intermittency of wind generation and mitigate network imbalances. According to statements by ENGIE Romania, the technical configuration centers on highly stable Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) chemistry:
Surplus Absorption: The system will absorb excess clean electricity during periods when localized wind production exceeds the immediate carrying capacity of the regional transmission grid.
System Balancing: The primary function of the battery will be providing rapid system and balancing services, including active frequency regulation for the national electricity network.
Scalable Infrastructure: While the project initiates with a two-hour delivery window, the core engineering footprint has been designed to easily scale delivery from two to four hours should future transmission system requirements dictate greater flexibility.
The Galați project marks the initial phase of a broader grid-modernization campaign spearheaded by ENGIE Romania to support the group’s overarching global goal: achieving 95 GW of installed renewable and storage capacity by 2030.
Concurrently, ENGIE is developing a much larger utility-scale standalone battery project in Șelimbăr, Sibiu County. The company recently secured full project rights and all necessary construction permits for the Sibiu development. Spanning a two-hectare plot, the future Șelimbăr facility will deliver 80 MW of power capacity and 160 MWh of storage capacity, also utilizing robust LFP battery technology.
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