Wagenham, Austria - 85 MW / 170 MWh

NGEN commissioned the Wagenham battery energy storage system in September 2026. The plant holds 85 MW of operating power against 170 MWh of capacity, which puts it in the two-hour duration class.

The site lies in Upper Austria, close to the German border and to a substation operated by Austrian Power Grid (APG), the Austrian transmission system operator. The battery connects to the 110 kV line at network level 3. It absorbs energy when wind and solar output runs ahead of demand and releases it when output falls away, which is how an asset of this size supports grid stability.

NGEN Austria GmbH delivered the project as a full EPC contract: planning, construction, commissioning, and the marketing and optimisation that follow. Site development began in 2023, construction started in late March 2026, and the plant was on the grid six months later. For infrastructure at this voltage and scale, that is a short programme.

Wind and solar account for a growing share of Austrian generation, and the German system next door pushes the same variability across the border. What the grid needs from its reserve has changed with it: less capacity running in order to stand ready, more capacity that can go from nothing to full output within seconds and back again.

Integrating the renewable capacity Austria has planned is expected to require around 8.7 GW of battery storage by 2040. A fraction of that is in operation today.

Volume is only half the problem. A battery is worth building where it can be connected at a voltage level that matters to the system, and connection capacity is the scarce commodity in most European markets. Wagenham was developed around an existing 110 kV connection point next to the APG substation.

Then there is the schedule. A storage asset is a financial investment before it is a piece of infrastructure, and every week between the investment decision and the first traded megawatt-hour is revenue that no amount of technical performance later will recover.

NGEN Austria GmbH ran the project with its own people instead of through a prime contractor. Fewer parties meant fewer interfaces to manage, decisions taken in days instead of weeks, and less of the execution risk that accumulates when the work is split between firms. It is the reason the programme held the dates set before construction began.

Commercial operation came in stages. Available power was raised in defined increments as each set of commissioning checks was completed, rather than the full 85 MW being offered from the first day. The plant now trades on the market and delivers ancillary services.

Wagenham is managed on NGEN's own energy platform, which brings storage asset management, power trading and ancillary services into a single system. The platform reads the state of the battery, conditions on the market and the requirement coming from the system, and sets charging, discharging and offered capacity against all three. That is the commercial case for owning the software: capacity that can move between balancing products and short-term energy earns from several markets instead of one.

The site carries multiple safety systems supporting continuous operation, and a noise barrier along the perimeter limits noise emissions to the surrounding area.

Austria's largest system-critical storage

85 MW and 170 MWh connected at network level 3, and among the larger assets of its kind in Europe.

Six months from groundbreaking to grid

Construction started in late March 2026 and the plant was connected six months later, on the dates set before work began.

One team, start to finish

NGEN Austria carried the project as a full EPC contract, with no prime contractor between NGEN and the site.

Trading and balancing on one platform

The plant trades on the market and delivers ancillary services, managed alongside the rest of NGEN's European fleet.