DRI picks Fluence to deliver Trzebinia battery project
DRI, the EU renewables arm of Ukraine’s DTEK Group, has selected Fluence Energy B.V., a subsidiary of Fluence Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: FLNC) (“Fluence”), a global market leader delivering intelligent energy storage systems, to supply battery storage units for its 133 MW 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. Under 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, by participating in arbitrage, 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 announcement comes less than two weeks after DTEK – DRI’s parent company and Ukraine’s largest private power company – energised a 200 MW 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, in the wake of attacks on Ukrainian energy targets since russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
The 622 MWh 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.
By integrating industry-leading cybersecurity features, and only sourcing components from friendly countries, 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.
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 continues the Ukrainian-American partnership to strengthen energy security for Europe as a whole and for Ukraine in particular.
“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.” said Murat Cinar, CEO of DRI. “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.”
“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,” said Julian Jansen, Managing Director of Growing Markets, Fluence. “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 S&P Global, Poland’s installed energy storage capacity is projected to grow from just 25 MWh at the end of 2024 to over 20 GWh by 2030. Fluence is proud to support this transformation and contribute to Poland’s goal of reaching more than 50% renewables in its energy mix by the end of the decade.