Vistula, Poland - 9.4 MW / 18.8 MWh

NGEN commissioned Project Vistula, a 9.4 MW / 18.8 MWh battery energy storage system at Łozienica in West Pomerania, north-west Poland. Five Tesla Megapack 2XL units connect to the distribution network at 15 kV, the first installation of that technology on the Polish market. Operational readiness was confirmed in cooperation with Enea Operator.

Vistula is the second utility-scale battery storage installation in Poland and the first connected directly to a distribution network operator's grid. The distinction matters commercially as much as technically: the connection level sets the counterparty, the technical requirements and the arrangements a storage asset has to work within.

Development, investment and operation usually sit with separate companies on a storage project. On Vistula they sit with one. NGEN invested in the asset, owns it and operates it, so responsibility runs unbroken from the grid connection to market participation.

The project is named after Poland's longest river.

Battery storage is scaling quickly across Europe, but the equipment has rarely been the bottleneck. Integration with national grid infrastructure and electricity markets is where projects in emerging storage markets stall.

Connecting at distribution rather than transmission level raised questions with no local precedent: technical integration with the distribution grid; real-time communication and control of the asset; day-to-day operational management; participation in the electricity market and the settlement that follows; and the regulatory and distribution agreements needed to permit all of it.

Vistula was developed as a pilot on that basis. The point was to work the answers out on a live asset, and to leave the grid operators and contractors involved with a reference for the projects that follow.

The scope covered the asset end to end: Tesla Megapack units, transformers and power conversion infrastructure, medium- and low-voltage distribution systems, the 15 kV connection to the distribution network operator, communication and telecommunications infrastructure, and monitoring and CCTV.

The battery is integrated with NGEN's digital operating platform, which pairs SCADA monitoring with ESGP, the group's AI-driven high-level energy management system. Between them they provide real-time monitoring and control of the asset, automated optimisation of dispatch against market signals, and coordination between how the battery is run and what the grid requires of it. The battery operates as an active grid asset, responding to both market conditions and system needs.

Market participation is phased. The first phase is price arbitrage on the day-ahead and intraday markets. Ancillary and balancing services follow, covering FCR, aFRR and mFRR, with work still under way to enable full participation. Flexibility services for the grid come later.

The central technical task was integrating the battery into the grid environment and maintaining reliable communication and control between systems. It required close coordination between engineers, grid operators, subcontractors and technology providers.

Poland's first battery on the distribution grid

The country's second utility-scale storage installation, and the first connected directly to a distribution network operator.

First Tesla Megapack 2XL in Poland

Five units, the first installation of the technology in the country, with operational readiness confirmed alongside Enea Operator.

Integration proven on a live asset

Grid connection, control, market participation and the agreements behind them settled in operation, giving NGEN and the Polish grid operators a precedent to build on.

One party from connection to market

NGEN invested in, owns and operates the plant, which keeps a single line of responsibility across the whole chain.