Econergy has launched commercial operations for a fully merchant 70 MW / 141 MWh battery energy storage system at its Părău 1 project in Brașov, Romania. The battery joins a 92 MW solar array that has been active since early 2024, bringing the site's combined capacity to 162 MW across a 113-hectare footprint. The BESS features dedicated grid-import capacity, enabling it to charge directly from the grid during periods of low or negative pricing, as well as to capture clipped generation from the adjacent solar plant.
The €85 million ($98.8 million) project is fully owned by the developer and operates entirely on a merchant basis. Econergy, as a public company informing investors, provided a breakdown of expected costs and revenues for its UK firm that will indirectly 100% own the site. It reported €21,343,000 ($24,836,528) in costs and expects €9,742,000 in revenue from the storage, with EBITDA profit at €7,981,000 and Funds From Operations at €6,320,000. This implies, based on projections, just over a three-year return on capital outlay investment from FFO.
CEO Eyal Podhorzer said layering storage revenues onto an existing generation asset demonstrates the firm's deliberate transition from developing renewables to operating them as an independent power producer. Econergy views Părău 1 as the technical and commercial template for its broader hybridization strategy. The company currently has over 1 GWh of storage capacity under construction or ready for grid connection in Romania, including a planned 120 MW BESS at its flagship 155 MW Rătești solar project and a 49 MW addition for its 87 MW Oradea project.
Operating a large battery on a purely merchant basis in Romania means little protection on revenues. However, with the nation recently surpassing 1 GW of utility-scale battery capacity, charging from the grid to capitalize on negative pricing windows provides additional revenue that standalone solar does not offer, hedging the asset. What remains unknown is how actual merchant revenue will compare with Econergy's projections, given the absence of contracted offtake and the dependence on volatile negative-pricing windows.