The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has officially completed grid connection of its landmark battery energy storage project with the nameplate capacity of 7.8 GWh.

The project spans three sites located in the Kingdom’s southwestern regions – Najran, Khamis Mushait, and Madaya. Each site has a capacity of 2.6 GWh and connected to the transmission network at 380 kV.

The project is owned by the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), with National Grid SA acting as the offtaker. Algihaz Holding delivered the project under a full turnkey EPC contract, including operations and maintenance (O&M) as well as the supply and integration of the high-voltage transformer equipment.

Designed as a grid-forming system, the BESS provides advanced grid services including black-start capability, virtual inertia, fast frequency response, and voltage support, thereby strengthening system stability and enabling higher penetration of renewable energy on the Saudi transmission network.

China’s Sungrow served as the equipment provider. In a press release issued on Thursday, the company said that it played a pivotal role by “completing the manufacturing of over 1,500 PowerTitan 2.0 systems in just 58 days and delivering the entire project within a very challenging timeline”.

Described at the time as the world’s largest BESS order, Sungrow signed a supply deal with Algihaz Holding mid-July 2024. A Sungrow representative told ESS News on the occassion that the project’s scale, tight delivery schedule, challenging climate conditions, and complex logistics pose significant challenges.

Sungrow’s PowerTitan 2.0 solution features an all-in-one AC-DC block design that integrates embedded power conversion systems (PCS), pre-assembled battery containers, medium-voltage transformers, ring main units (RMU), and comprehensive factory testing. This modular configuration significantly reduced onsite installation time, the manifacturer said, adding that it also deployed a dedicated local service team in Saudi Arabia to support installation, commissioning, and grid connection activities.

According to a LinkedIn announcement by Ahmed Elbaz, Head of BESS Execution at Algihaz Holding, the 7.8 GWh project was completed approximately five months ago. The project not only represents a major advance for renewable energy deployment in the Middle East but also stands as the largest BESS project in the world to date.

Driven by Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia continues to scale up its renewable energy and storage ambitions at pace. Speaking earlier this week at the 13th Saudi Smart Grid Conference, held under the patronage of the Ministry of Energy, Assistant Minister of Energy for Electricity Affairs Nasser Al-Qahtani said the Kingdom has a renewable energy project pipeline of nearly 64 GW, of which 12.3 GW has already been connected to the national grid.

In parallel, Saudi Arabia has 30 GWh of battery energy storage capacity under development, with 8 GWh already grid-connected, including the massive 2 GWh Bisha BESS, which came online in January. These projects, Al-Qahtani noted, play a critical role in enabling the grid to balance real-time supply and demand fluctuations arising from the variable nature of renewable energy generation.