The developers O2X and Ingrid Capacity have started work on two battery storage projects with a total of 60MW of power in Sweden.

The renewable energy company OX2 has started work on the Bredhälla BESS (battery energy storage system) project in the village of the same name, in southern Kronoberg County, directly adjacent to a substation operated by E.ON. Construction starts this month for commissioning in spring 2024.

BESS will deliver ancillary services to Svenska Kraftnät, the state-owned transmission system operator (TSO), while providing load shifting to balance the grid. It will be close to two of OX2’s ongoing wind projects although it did not indicate that these would be co-located or share any infrastructure.

– The Bredhälla project provides increased security and flexibility for the electricity supply in southern Sweden, says Michiel van Asseldonk, responsible for system services and energy storage, OX2.

Intermittency is growing on the Swedish grid as more renewables come online, and capacity in the country’s existing portfolio of large pumped hydro storage (PHES) to balance this is being used up. Battery storage projects are being launched to make up the shortfall as the country aims to be net zero by 2045.

O2X’s announcement comes a few weeks after energy storage-focused company Ingrid Capacity announced its latest BESS project, a 20MW unit in Vimmerby in Kalmar County. It didn’t provide many details but its latest BESS project used lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells.

“Through energy storage, society’s transition to renewable energy is enabled. Our systems act on call to even out the difference between production and consumption in the electricity grid at the second level. If there is a deficit in electricity, the battery can be discharged to the grid to compensate for it and in the same way charge from the grid when there is a temporary surplus, says Nicklas Bäcker, strategy manager at Ingrid Capacity.

The company made headlines a few months ago when it announced that it was build a 70MW BESS for the first half of 2024, the largest announced project in the country. The two largest operational units in Sweden are Vattenfall’s 5MW/20MWh system in Uppsala and Primrock’s 5.4MW unit in Falkenberg while Alfen delivers a 10MW/11.9MWh system for the electricity grid company Ellevio in Grums, West Sweden.

Ingrid Capacity has approximately 500 MW of energy storage projects under development in Sweden, it says. It was formed at the beginning of 2022 and counts the Swedish companies Engelbrekt Utveckling, Springbacka and Neptunia as its main owners.

The Nordic country is also home to Northvolt, the lithium-ion gigafactory which has raised approximately USD 8 billion to manufacture sustainable battery cells in Sweden and Germany and BESS equipment in Poland.

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