Greece cancels third standalone battery storage auction

The Greek Regulatory Authority for Energy, Waste, and Water (RAAEY) has cancelled the country’s third auction for 200 MW of standalone, grid-scale, front-of-the-meter battery energy storage systems.

The procurement exercise was launched mid-November and interested parties were invited to submit bids by December 23. However, RAAEY announced on Thursday that the auction was cancelled because bidders had not fully understood the rule on the maximum power limit per participant.

Namely, the original announcement provided that in cases where a participant takes part in the tender with one project, the maximum power limit is set at 100 MW, while in the case of a portfolio with more than one project, the maximum power limit per participant is set at 25% of the tendered capacity, i.e. 50 MW.

The new call will be looking to set the maximum power limit at 50 MW per participant, eliminating the previous distinction between single projects and portfolios with multiple projects.

RAEEY is aming to issue a renewed notice in the Official Gazette as soon as possible to avoid any major delays and complete the procurement in the first quarter of 2025.

Reportedly, only nine companies had expressed preliminary interest in the cancelled tender and the documents and letters of guarantee already submitted would still be validin the renewed call

Greece’s third auction is seeking to award 200 MW of standalone battery storage projects, 100 MW less than initially announced when the 1 GW subsidy program for this type of energy storage was announced. The four-hour storage systems will provide for a total of 800 MWh of energy storage capycity, according to RAAEY’s previously published documents.

The final round of Greek battery storage auctions will support the buildout of the system in in the coal mining region of Western Macedonia in northern Greece and four municipalities in Peloponnese – Megalopoli, Tripoli, Gortynia, and Oichalia.

As previously announced, the submitted bids in the third auction will be capped at EUR 145,000/MW per year, up from EUR 115,000/MW per year, which was the bidding cap in the second auction. A letter of guarantee of EUR 35,000/MW is a precondition for inclusion in the auction.

Apart from the contracts-for-difference (CfD) support, the awarded projects will also be offered a one-time capex subsidy payment. The capex payment in the third auction is set at EUR 200,000/MW, up from EUR 100,000/MW in the second auction.

The awarded projects must be up and running by the end of April 2026, according to RAAEY.

Greece awarded 400 MW and 300 MW of battery storage projects in earlier auction rounds held in 2023 and 2024.