Rows of battery banks. Image courtesy 123rf.
DRI, the EU renewables arm of Ukraine’s DTEK Group, has selected Fluence Energy B.V., a subsidiary of Fluence Energy, to supply battery storage units for its 133MW/622MWh Trzebinia project in southern Poland.
DRI’s Trzebinia project is due to be the largest battery storage facility taking part in the Polish Capacity Market when batteries are integrated into the system from 2027, said SRI in a release.
Under the capacity market system, batteries will help strengthen Poland’s energy security by providing an ‘energy reserve’ that can be dispatched in milliseconds to prevent outages in moments of system stress – for example during peak demand or sudden drops in generation. Integrating battery technology in the capacity market will also lower energy costs as energy storage is cheaper to run than generation alternatives.
Additionally, says DRI, by participating in arbitrage, the batteries enable their operators to take advantage of lower wholesale prices by absorbing energy from the grid when prices are lower and releasing the energy when they are higher.
The 622MWh Trzebinia project will deploy Fluence’s Smartstack platform – a modular, high-density system designed to enable fast deployment and optimised performance over an asset’s lifetime.
Also, by integrating cybersecurity features, says the company, the Smartstack platform also strengthens Poland’s cyber defences. According to Spain’s Industrial Cybersecurity Centre, Poland was the world’s most targeted country for politically and socially motivated cyberattacks in Q1 2025, with critical infrastructure, including grid networks, being among the most common targets.
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Trzebinia is the first energy storage project in Poland executed by Fluence and DRI. Fluence has invested heavily into its Polish operations since 2022 and is working to expand further in the Polish energy storage market. For DTEK and DRI, the project is part of a broader strategy to create an inter-connected energy system across the region and to strengthen its collective energy security.
Commenting in a release was Murat Cinar, CEO of DRI: “We are extremely pleased to sign this partnership agreement with Fluence, a global market leader in energy storage products and services. Together with Fluence, DTEK Group successfully delivered a portfolio of six projects in Ukraine in record time — less than six months.”
“We are confident that the Trzebinia BESS project will make a real difference, contributing to Poland’s energy transition and enhancing the grid’s ability to integrate renewable energy sources, while strengthening energy independence not only for Poland, but for the entire European Union. For DRI, this project marks another important step in the development of a portfolio of solar, wind, and BESS projects in fast growing markets in the energy sector, such as Poland, Croatia, Italy, and Romania.”
Said Julian Jansen, managing director of growing markets, Fluence: “Fluence has invested into the Polish energy storage market from day one, culminating in this project being executed for our partners from DRI and DTEK. We thank them for their ongoing trust in Fluence’s products and execution capabilities.
“Fluence has delivered projects in the Baltics, Ukraine, and now Poland, all intended to help ensure energy security and grid-resilience across Central and Eastern Europe. Poland has the potential to be one of the five largest European markets by 2030. We look forward to increasing our investment into our Polish operations and our local team.”
According to DRI, citing S&P Global, Poland’s installed energy storage capacity is projected to grow from just 25MWh at the end of 2024 to over 20GWh by 2030.
The announcement comes less than two weeks after DTEK energised a 200MW project across six sites in Ukraine, using Fluence storage systems. The project is designed to make Ukraine’s energy system more resilient in time for winter.
