Four-Hour Large-Scale Storage: Enlight and Enertrag Start Construction of 840 MWh Project in Brandenburg

Münster – Enlight Renewable Energy and Enertrag have begun construction of a battery storage system with 200 MW of power capacity and around 840 MWh of storage capacity in Bertikow, Brandenburg. Commissioning is planned for the fourth quarter of 2027.

The expansion of large-scale battery storage in Germany is gaining momentum. As the number of planned projects grows, however, access to the power grid is increasingly becoming a central challenge for the industry. The federal government therefore intends to reform how scarce grid connection capacity is allocated. Both the transmission system operators and industry associations are calling for changes to the planned grid connection package, though they set different priorities.

Bertikow Battery Storage: 840 MWh Storage Capacity and More Than Four Hours of Storage Duration

The Enlight and Enertrag battery storage system is being built in the municipality of Uckerfelde, directly at the Bertikow substation. The substation, which is operated by Enertrag, was modernised together with 50Hertz and inaugurated in November 2025. According to the project partners, land rights and the grid connection for the new battery storage project are already secured. The official groundbreaking took place on October 13, 2026. Construction work has already begun.

With 200 MW of power capacity and around 840 MWh of storage capacity, the system has a calculated discharge duration of 4.2 hours at full power. Commercial operation is scheduled to begin in the first half of 2028.

The system is expected to participate in the day-ahead and intraday markets as well as in the balancing power markets. For Enlight, which is listed on Nasdaq and in Tel Aviv, Bertikow marks its entry into the German battery storage market.

EDF Trading Secures Storage Capacity for Seven Years

A seven-year offtake agreement with EDF Trading covers part of the storage capacity. Munich-based specialist Entrix will handle the marketing optimisation of the battery storage system. No information is available on the scope of the contracted capacity or the financial terms of the agreement. For Enlight, this is the first battery energy storage system (BESS) offtake transaction in Europe.

Enertrag and EDF Trading already cooperate on the Brüssow co-location project in Brandenburg, which combines 44.5 MW of photovoltaic capacity with a battery storage system of 5 MW and 10 MWh. The project is marketed through a seven-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with EDF Trading and a likewise seven-year tolling agreement with Energy2market. The storage system is to be marketed initially as a green power co-location for five years and then as a grey power co-location for two years. While Brüssow focuses on the joint marketing of solar power and battery storage, the Bertikow project is geared toward large-scale storage and marketing of electricity.

Grid Connections for Battery Storage: Grid Operators Call for Political Prioritisation – Industry Associations Demand Clear Rules

As large-scale battery storage expands, securing grid connection capacity in good time is becoming increasingly important alongside financing and marketing. In September 2026, the four German transmission system operators put grid connection commitments for battery storage at 71.8 GW in the transmission grid. There are at least around 30 GW more in the distribution grid. Taken together, the grid connection commitments cited by grid operators add up arithmetically to around 102 GW. However, it cannot be inferred that this power capacity will actually be installed later.

Demand is also high in the grid area of 50Hertz, which includes Bertikow. In March 2026, inquiries for a further 140 battery storage projects totalling around 53 GW were pending in the grid area. In the previous year, the grid operator had issued grid connection commitments for 26 large-scale battery storage systems with around 12 GW. Since April 2026, the four transmission system operators have been applying a maturity-based procedure that gives greater weight to a project’s stage of development and its likelihood of realisation.

In parallel, the Bundestag is deliberating the federal government’s grid connection package. At the public hearing on October 7, 2026, the four transmission system operators called for more far-reaching policy guidelines. The federal government or the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) should determine what shares of available grid connection capacity are reserved for battery storage, industry, data centres and other user groups. The grid operators want to avoid having to decide on economic and industrial policy priorities themselves.

The Federal Association of Energy Storage Systems (BVES) criticised the then ministerial draft as early as July 2026 because additional costs and risks would be shifted onto project developers without sufficiently accelerating connection procedures. In a further statement in October, the association calls for binding deadlines, transparent prioritisation criteria, reliable grid connection commitments and non-discriminatory treatment of energy storage. The Federal Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) welcomes the general direction of the reform but demands legally secure rules for the allocation of scarce capacity and reliable grandfathering protection. BDEW also calls for faster grid expansion.

Source: IWR Online, 16 Oct 2026