Germany’s Deutsche Bahn closes 140 MWh battery storage deal with Iqony

German national railway company Deutsche Bahn has secured some of the flexibility offered by a battery energy storage facility Fluence is building in Duisburg-Walsum, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The 50 MW/200 MWh Steady Green Energy storage facility is expected to go into operation in May 2026. Deutsche Bahn subsidiary DB Energie and the energy company Iqony have concluded a power storage agreement (PSA) which stipulates DB Energie can use 35 MW/140 MWh of the project’s capacity for five years, to make its renewables portfolio more flexible.

“It is a four-hour storage facility that can store a total of around 200 MWh of green electricity, or provide it as needed,” said Christian Karalis, co-head of the business development department at Iqony. Karalis is responsible for the Steady Green Energy battery project. “With tailor-made power storage agreements, Iqony offers partners the opportunity, for the first time, to contract storage capacity for their portfolio without having to own the assets themselves,” he added.

With its battery project, Iqony is responding to the emerging need for longer storage hours. Karalis said, “Storage facilities in the German market currently only have a capacity of two hours.” Further projects at Steag Iqony Group power plant sites are already being prepared.

Deutsche Bahn’s rail network is 68% powered by renewable energy, “but trains have to run even when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing,” said DB Energie chief executive Florian Reuter. “Iqony’s battery storage system can store excess electricity from renewables and feed it into the grid when needed.” The 140 MWh Deutsche Bahn has committed to mean the railway can store enough electricity to power around three million kilometers of Intercity Express (ICE) high-speed rail journeys per year.

Iqony and Deutsche Bahn pointed out the PSA created a new contractual structure. Until now, companies had to build and operate battery energy storage facilities themselves, and bear the financial risk. The new agreement could generate benefits for both sides. “As with our previous green electricity supply contracts (power purchase agreements, PPAs), I am pleased that DB Energie is now also using its commitment to advance the urgently needed expansion of battery storage facilities in Germany,” said Reuter.

Energy storage developer Fluence has various large-scale projects at the planning stage with more than 11.1 GW worldwide, 700 MW of which are in Germany.

The planned battery storage project in Duisburg-Walsum is an important building block in the ongoing transformation of Steag Iqony. “In addition to the planned construction of several new hydrogen-capable, gas-fired power plants, our focus in the further development of our existing power plant sites is on the area of ​​energy storage,” said Andreas Reichel, chairman, and director of human resources at Steag and Iqony. The group said the expansion of district heating networks on the Ruhr and Saar, as well as the company’s renewable energy generation plants, will be pushed forward.

The storage capacity available beyond the tranche used by DB Energie is being marketed by Iqony’s trading division. The company said it already operates 90 MW of battery energy storage systems, primarily in control and energy balancing markets.

From pv magazine Deutschland.