The containers are now ready to ship from AlphaESS’s factory to central Lithuania. On arrival, a few months of site work lie ahead, from setting up the containers to testing and grid connection, before the battery can take its place in a fast-growing Baltic fleet.
Lithuania – Ignitis gears up its batteries for grid balancing
The need for this kind of storage has been growing since February 2025, when Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia cut their links to the Russian-controlled power system and synchronised with continental Europe. The Baltic system operators now have to procure their own balancing reserves, from frequency containment to restoration, and batteries are among the fastest assets to bring online. In Lithuania, European Energy connected its 25 MW/65 MWh battery at Anykščiai to the transmission grid this spring, and Ignitis is preparing its batteries for the balancing market. The state is also contributing, with investment grants of up to 30 percent for batteries of 15 MW to 150 MW that provide balancing services to Litgrid.
Balancing and trading
The Jonava battery will connect at 110 kV and operate under the coordination of Litgrid, Lithuania’s transmission system operator. That gives it access to the country’s balancing capacity market, where Litgrid pays batteries to stand ready to correct frequency deviations, as well as to non-frequency ancillary services and flexibility contracts. Alongside these, the system will arbitrage on Nord Pool’s day-ahead and intraday markets, charging in low-price hours and discharging into the evening peaks.
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The battery holds 120 MWh behind 60 MW of power, enough to run flat out for two hours. AlphaESS is supplying the Aster 5000 battery containers, while Spanish manufacturer Power Electronics is supplying the medium-voltage equipment and the bidirectional power conversion system linking the DC battery blocks to the AC network. Lithuanian company UAB TSPI is supplying the power plant controller, which keeps the system’s output in line with the country’s grid code.
To mark the end of production, a team from UB Solar, the project’s general contractor, visited AlphaESS’s headquarters and joined the shipment ceremony. Founded in 2012, AlphaESS now has more than 300,000 systems running in over 130 countries, from home batteries to utility-scale projects such as Jonava. (TF)
