NGEN builds 70 MW / 140 MWh battery system at Talum

NGEN is building a 70 MW / 140 MWh battery energy storage system at the Talum site in Kidričevo — one of the largest storage installations in the region. The system uses 36 Tesla Megapack 2XL units. Construction runs from 2025 to 2026, with start of operation scheduled for June 2026.

The project extends an existing portfolio at the same location. Talum 1 came online in 2020 with 15 MW / 30 MWh, followed by Talum 2 in 2022 with 20 MW / 40 MWh. Talum 3 consolidates all three into a single integrated storage portfolio operated for ancillary services and energy trading.

This is infrastructure designed to operate at grid level. It delivers ancillary services to the transmission system operator, responds in real time to system needs, participates in energy and flexibility markets, and supports the integration of renewable generation. In practice, the battery functions as an active component of the power system rather than a reserve held for outages.

The scale matters for a specific reason. As the share of wind and solar generation rises, the constraint in the power system shifts from how much electricity can be produced to how quickly supply and demand can be balanced. Storage assets of this size, operated under active market and system control, are among the few resources that can absorb that variability at the speed the grid requires.

Kidričevo is now NGEN's largest concentration of storage capacity in Slovenia and one of the group's principal operating sites in Europe.