Demand is emerging, but opportunities are not yet projects

Poland's energy storage market is attracting a growing number of equipment manufacturers, project developers and investors. Yet bringing a product into Poland and delivering an operational project remain separated by several layers of work, including the business model, grid connection, system design, certification and local execution.

During Energy Planet's webinar, "Entering Poland's BESS Market: Who Do You Need on the Ground?", Mariusz Balicki, CEO of Polish energy company CORVION P.S.A., drew on his experience in power infrastructure, renewable energy and energy storage system integration to discuss where Poland's BESS demand is coming from and what it takes to turn that demand into deliverable projects.

Mariusz began his career working with distribution networks, substations and power infrastructure. As Poland added more solar and wind capacity, he observed a widening mismatch between generation and consumption. Renewable output does not always coincide with demand; solar plants may face curtailment or shutdowns, while industrial users are exposed to energy prices, distribution charges and supply-security concerns. Energy storage has therefore begun to enter practical solutions on both the generation and demand sides.

In his view, demand is not limited to large standalone storage projects. Energy-intensive industrial companies want to control electricity and distribution costs; solar plants need to limit the revenue impact of curtailment; and agricultural and industrial users with continuity-critical loads are looking for systems capable of supporting them. Each application has different revenue streams and requires a different product configuration.

Market demand shows where BESS can be used, but it does not establish whether a project is investable. The moderator therefore moved the discussion to a more practical question: when a customer says it wants to deploy storage, what must a project team examine before deciding whether the opportunity is worth pursuing?

Project viability starts with the business model

Mariusz's answer was not battery capacity or equipment price, but the project's financial foundations. Industrial customers focus on energy costs and production stability, while banks and investors assess cash flow, risk, CAPEX, tax exposure and revenue predictability. The same technical proposal can produce very different conclusions depending on the stakeholder reviewing it.

CORVION assesses projects against customer bills, load curves, production schedules and expected outcomes, calculating achievable cost savings, revenue streams, cash flow and investment requirements. Some customers want larger systems, but additional capacity does not necessarily generate additional revenue. If the extra equipment only raises CAPEX without increasing tradable energy or creating another source of value, project returns may deteriorate.

Mariusz also noted that decision-making around storage projects is changing. His team previously dealt mainly with corporate technical and energy departments. Today, it often begins by explaining potential savings, investment structures and cash flow to finance teams before technical staff take the project into implementation. The technical design is not discussed only after the financial model has been completed; it must be recalibrated continuously against the same revenue assumptions.

For industrial companies that do not want to commit their own capital, CORVION offers a BESS-as-a-Service model. The service provider finances, designs and installs the system, then shares the resulting energy-cost savings or additional revenue with the customer. The customer reduces its upfront CAPEX, while the service provider assumes responsibility for equipment performance, operations and long-term cash-flow risk. Whether the model works still depends on the customer's load profile, contract term and verifiable revenue.

A transparent business model may show that a project is worth pursuing, but it cannot guarantee that the system has somewhere to connect. The discussion therefore turned naturally to one of the most tangible constraints facing storage development in Poland: whether grid capacity is available and whether the proposed connection route is the right one.

From a blocked 110 kV route to approval at 400 kV

Grid capacity is one of the principal constraints facing BESS projects in Poland. Local network operators assess applications according to the connection point, voltage level and surrounding grid conditions. The nearest node, or the one that appears cheapest to build, is not necessarily the most feasible option.

During the Q&A, an audience member asked directly what a local partner can actually solve when the grid itself lacks physical capacity. Mariusz acknowledged that a local company cannot create capacity out of nothing. What it can do is understand the local network, identify which nodes still have headroom and which may be expanded, and assess whether a project should wait for a nearby substation or pursue a different connection route.

He cited one storage project in which the customer had sought to connect the BESS to the 110 kV network but failed repeatedly over a period of two to three years. Rather than continue with the same approach, CORVION reassessed available nodes and voltage levels across a wider section of the network. According to Mariusz, the team ultimately redirected the connection strategy to the 400 kV system and secured connection approval after the first application.

This does not mean that 400 kV is inherently preferable to 110 kV. A higher voltage level brings different equipment configurations, protection requirements, connection costs and engineering complexity, and it will not suit every project. The case shows that when the connection route itself is unworkable, the earlier developers commit capital to land, design and equipment, the greater their exposure to sunk costs.

Mariusz said CORVION normally examines network conditions around a proposed site at an early stage, forming an initial view of the power, node and voltage level that may be available. Based on his team's project experience, this preliminary assessment can take one to two months. It is not the same as obtaining formal grid approval, and the actual timeline still depends on project location, requested capacity, the network operator's review and any required grid reinforcement.

Once a viable connection route has been identified, the project can move into equipment-level decisions. At that point, the issue is no longer simply which battery or PCS to purchase, but who is responsible for the different components, whether they can operate together and whether catalogue specifications can be translated into the output promised by the project.

Equipment can be procured separately, but system responsibility cannot be fragmented

Energy storage projects are often treated as a combination of batteries, PCS and transformers. Mariusz argues, however, that the overall design, technical interfaces and allocation of responsibility among participants must be defined before procurement begins.

He has repeatedly seen customers purchase DC storage containers, PCS, transformers, switchgear and grid-connection equipment from different suppliers, then search for a company to connect and commission the entire system. Problems often emerge together at the integration stage: equipment parameters may not match, communication interfaces may be incompatible, and protection and control logic may not work together. By commissioning, identifying which party must modify its product or assume responsibility can add substantial time and cost.

Capacity is among the most frequently misunderstood parameters. Some customers treat the nameplate capacity in a product catalogue as the energy that will ultimately be delivered and use it to calculate system charging and discharging capability and expected revenue. In practice, projects must also account for operating limits, DC-to-AC and AC-to-DC conversion, auxiliary consumption and process losses. Some components may also need to be oversized to deliver the contracted AC-side output.

CORVION therefore analyses the customer's load and operating profile before equipment is selected and only then develops the system configuration. Mariusz said the same customer may receive several options, each with a different investment level, capacity configuration and savings outcome. System design is not merely a decision about battery size; it is a process of confirming that the batteries, PCS, transformers, EMS and grid-connection solution can operate as one system.

The moderator then asked Mariusz to use a live project to explain the most difficult interface between design and operations. His example came from a wood-processing plant that had been operating for more than 30 years, bringing the earlier discussion of capacity, controls and system responsibility into a real production environment.

How an ageing industrial plant integrated BESS into production

The wood-processing plant's challenge was not simply high energy prices. Some of its medium-voltage infrastructure had been in service for decades. The new storage system had to comply with current standards and certification requirements while remaining compatible with the existing distribution network and production equipment.

The plant operated several high-power motors, some of which used direct-on-line starting without soft starters or variable-frequency drives. Starting these motors created high instantaneous power demand and pushed up the site's load peaks. Simply installing a battery and operating it on a charge-low, discharge-high strategy would not fully address the site's problems.

Based on local electricity prices and the production schedule, the project team shifted part of the plant's electricity imports to lower-priced night-time periods and used the BESS to support daytime production. The system also incorporated export-limitation controls so that stored electricity primarily served internal loads rather than being fed back into the public grid without a planned dispatch instruction.

The EMS did more than follow a fixed tariff schedule. It had to coordinate charging and discharging with the production plan, changing loads and state of charge, while drawing on the battery to provide part of the instantaneous power required when the large motors started. Mariusz said the team also introduced a self-learning control system and combined it with other technical modifications to reduce the plant's grid-demand peak during equipment start-up.

According to Mariusz, the combined adjustments to the storage system, export control, EMS dispatch and production processes reduced the customer's energy costs by more than 30%. This was a project-specific result under a particular set of tariffs, loads and equipment conditions and cannot be applied directly to other factories. It does, however, show that the value of commercial and industrial storage may extend beyond energy arbitrage to include peak-demand management, distribution-cost optimisation and production-process control.

A design focused only on how many price-arbitrage cycles the battery can complete each day may miss more important energy issues inside the plant. Conversely, without understanding when equipment starts, how production is scheduled and what power fluctuations the existing network can withstand, even a sufficiently large battery may fail to deliver the expected returns. The project was ultimately not about selecting a single piece of equipment, but about integrating BESS into the power network and production logic of an ageing factory.

These site-level challenges also explain why a certified product may still be unable to enter a Polish project directly. For international suppliers, the next task is to translate project requirements for voltage, software, communications and maintenance into product capabilities before market entry.

Certification is not the starting point for market entry

International equipment suppliers entering Poland may be inclined to prepare technical documentation and certification for an existing product before looking for applications. Mariusz proposes a different sequence: understand the target market and grid conditions, select a product that genuinely fits local requirements, and only then proceed with technical adaptation and certification.

Even with complete documentation, a product may struggle to secure projects if its voltage configuration, system architecture, software functionality, installation method or economics do not match local needs. Large standalone storage, commercial and industrial systems, and co-located solar-plus-storage projects face different requirements for power, capacity, controls and permitting.

The architecture of Poland's existing solar fleet is one example. Mariusz said a substantial share of local commercial and industrial PV plants use 800 V AC systems. When storage is added to these plants, PCS voltage, transformer configuration and conversion losses all affect the design. A storage system that can connect directly to the existing voltage architecture may avoid additional equipment and conversion stages; if it cannot, the technical and economic case must be reassessed.

Software and communications are also part of product adaptation. By software, Mariusz referred to embedded device programs, EMS, communication systems, remote control and data interfaces with the customer and the grid. As Europe imposes tighter requirements on cybersecurity and grid performance for critical infrastructure, these capabilities will directly influence whether equipment is accepted for a project.

He advised companies to define their target market and product solution before preparing complete technical documentation and proceeding with CE marking and Poland-specific grid-connection certification. Based on individual projects in which his team has participated, some companies can complete product adaptation and market-entry preparations in under a year. The actual timeline depends on the starting product, certification scope, completeness of documentation and target application.

The interview began with demand in the Polish market and ultimately returned to the question posed in the event title: what kind of partner do international companies need on the ground? Mariusz's answer was not a single sales channel, but a set of capabilities spanning the project lifecycle.

The business model determines whether a project is worth pursuing; grid analysis determines whether it can connect; system design turns separate components into an operating asset; site engineering adapts the BESS to the customer's actual production process; and certification, software and long-term service determine whether the product can continue to win projects. If any one of these elements is missing, time and capital already committed in the preceding stages may lose their value.

Editor's note

This article is based on Energy Planet's webinar, "Entering Poland's BESS Market: Who Do You Need on the Ground?" Market assessments, project timelines, cost reductions and case-study results cited in the article were shared during the interview. Experience from individual projects should not be treated as representative of every BESS project in Poland.

Full Q&A: https://energyplanet.global/post/115