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Saudi Arabia’s 500MW battery plant connects to grid

22 January 2025

Saudi Arabia's largest battery energy storage system (bess) has been connected to the kingdom's electricity grid, 11 months after the start of construction.

The 500MW bess plant is located in Bisha, in Saudi Arabia's southwestern Asir Province. It is the first of many on-grid bess facilities planned in Saudi Arabia.

These facilities will be procured using either conventional or independent storage provider (ISP) models.

The Bisha plant, which has a nameplate capacity of 2.615 gigawatt-hours (GWh) but is rated at 2,000 megawatt-hours (MWh), was built by a consortium of State Grid of China and the local Alfanar Company.

Owned by Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), the plant features 122 prefabricated storage units, designed and supplied by China’s BYD.

According to an industry source, the unit integrates a 6MW power conversion system alongside four lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery modules, each with a capacity of 5.365MWh.

The Bishi bess facility is connected to the grid through a 380-kilovolt substation.

The local Algihaz Holding is the project's operational and maintenance supplier, while SEC subsidiary National Grid Saudi Arabia is the offtaker.

The project uses LFP, modularised containers designed to Underwriter’s Laboratory and National Fire Protection Association standards to avoid thermal propagation, and a large-scale fire-tested product to CSA TS-800, notes Marek Kubik, director at Enowa, the utility arm of Saudi gigaproject developer Neom.

Neom is also considering implementing bess plants to complement the gigaproject's planned renewable energy and transmission infrastructure. 

According to Kubik, eight more bess projects of the same size are expected to come online in Saudi Arabia next year, and a capacity of 33.5GWh is expected before the end of 2026.

"The driver is the need for significant flexibility as Saudi Arabia rapidly transforms its electricity grid to solar, targeting 50% renewables by 2030 under Saudi Vision 2030."

Battery IPPs

Principal buyer Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC) recently prequalified 33 firms to participate in the tender for the first phase of its independent bess projects in the kingdom.

The group one bess – also called ISP – projects will be developed using a build, own and operate model.

They comprise the following schemes, with a total combined capacity of 2,000MW, equal to about four hours or 8,000MWh of storage:

  • Al-Muwyah bess ISP: 500MW (Mecca)
  • Haden bess ISP: 500MW (Mecca) 
  • Al-Khushaybi bess ISP: 500MW (Qassim)
  • Al-Kahafa bess ISP: 500MW (Hail).
https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/13311431/main0000.jpg
Jennifer Aguinaldo

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