The BESS will provide high-speed and automatically-activated frequency regulation reserves needed for when the Baltic countries synchronise with continental Europe’s grid in 2025 after disconnecting from Russia’s.

The announcement follows a tender procedure from AST (Augstsprieguma tikls) from which Germany-based Rolls-Royce Solutions GmbH was selected as the most economically advantageous tender offer.

It follows similar projects launched in the other two Baltic countries, Lithuania and Estonia.

Rolands Irklis, chairman of AST, said: “Battery systems are an important infrastructure project for the security and stability of Latvia’s energy supply, allowing the necessary balancing reserves in the network to be ensured, the amount of which will increase significantly after synchronisation.”

The contract to Rolls-Royce Solutions is worth €77.07 million (US$83.3 million), of which 85% will be covered by EU funding (100% for Tube and 75% for Rezekne). Rolls-Royce will collaborate with LEC Construction International GmbH and Enersense SIA, a Latvia-based company, to carry out the construction work.

Rolls-Royce deployed the BESS for the second-largest BESS in the Netherlands, which went online in late 2023 (the largest at the time).