Engie has announced a plan to deploy around 1.5 GWh of battery storage capacity in Belgium.

The French energy company said it will connect three large-scale batteries to the high-voltage grid at its own sites in the municipalities of Kallo, Drogenbos, and Vilvoorde.

At the site in Drogenbos, in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant, Engie will deploy batteries with a combined capacity of 80 MW/320 MWh. It already operates another 6 MW of battery capacity in the province.

Engie also plans to build 100 MW/400 MWh of storage at the site in Kallo, in East Flanders, and 200 MW/800 MWh in Vilvoorde, in the Flemish province of Flemish Brabant.

All of the batteries will be able to provide power for four hours.

Engie also currently operates a 1,080 MW pumped hydro storage facility in Belgium – the Coo-Trois-Ponts Hydroelectric Power Station in Trois-Ponts, near Liege. “It played a central role in the Belgian energy mix for more than 50 years,” the company said in a statement.

According to the latest statistics from the International Renewable Energy Agency, Belgium had an installed PV capacity of 6.9 GW at the end of 2022. Its total renewable energy power generation capacity stood at 13.0 GW.