DNV recently congratulated Dispatch on reaching financial close for their project last week. Just a couple of days prior, the developer had announced via LinkedIn that construction had commenced, sharing pictures of the 6,000m² site and project partners at a celebration event. These partners include Fluence as the BESS technology provider and system integrator, along with Equans Energy & Infra handling engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC), offering services such as balance of plant, civil works, and grid connection.

DNV's Dual Advisory Role

During the due diligence phase, DNV served as the developer's technical advisor. This role will continue throughout the project's lifetime as the lender's technical advisor. A crucial aspect of the project is the secured grid connection, which has been a significant challenge for developers on the congested power grid. The BESS will charge during off-peak times and when solar PV and wind generation are abundant, providing energy during peak demand.The Project Amethyst is scheduled to enter commercial operation in early 2026. The energy trading arm of Dutch utility Eneco will optimize the asset's market operation based on data analytics provided by EnAppSys. The project was publicly announced by Dispatch and Eneco in mid-June, as reported by Energy-Storage.news.Dispatch's finance partners include Belgian infrastructure investment fund EPICo² and Macquarie Capital, with Dutch bank ABN AMRO as a lender. In June, Dispatch stated that this project marks "the first of many in a strategic alliance" formed with Macquarie Capital. The pair aims to collaborate on up to 3GWh of battery storage projects in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany over the next seven years.In collaboration with local authorities, the 2-hour project was designed. The modular design of the 144 Fluence Cube BESS units and the site layout have optimized space utilization. The company also mentioned that the local permitting process was streamlined to expedite development.

Challenges and Future Prospects in the Netherlands

While Project Amethyst is currently the largest in construction in the Netherlands, many standalone and hybrid BESS projects of similar or smaller scale are expected to follow. The country's largest operational BESS to date is the 30MW/68MWh 'Pollux' project by SemperPower, which went online just before the end of last year.Equans is working on a 35MW/100MWh project for its former owner ENGIE, which will be supplied and integrated by Fluence. This project has a larger storage capacity in megawatt-hours than Amethyst but will be paired with a solar PV plant.Two developers, Lion Storage and Giga Storage, are hoping to start construction on projects in the country before the end of this year, each exceeding 300MW/1,000MWh. In September, ESN Premium spoke with representatives of LC Energy, which won an irrevocable permit for a 500MW/2,000MWh standalone project in Groningen scheduled to begin construction in 2026. Friso Huizinga, managing director of LC Energy (a joint venture between the UK's Low Carbon and Dutch engineers QING), stated that grid fee reforms have unlocked the battery storage market. Without these reforms, which reduced costs by about 65% for battery projects connecting to the power grid, no projects could achieve financial close in the Netherlands.However, developing large-scale BESS projects remains challenging due to the scarcity of land in the densely populated country and zoning laws that make it difficult to site projects in mostly agricultural areas. Many substations where batteries could connect to the transmission system are often in rural areas.