On January 19, 2026, French renewable energy developer Neoen and national transmission system operator RTE jointly announced the construction of France's first large-scale battery energy storage system with grid building capabilities in the Brittany region. This project, named Breizh Big Battery, not only introduces technological innovation into the French power grid, but also marks a strategic transformation of energy storage functions from passive follow-up to active support of the grid.

92MW Innovation Experiment

The installed capacity of this project is 92MW/183MWh, using lithium-ion battery technology, and is expected to be put into operation in the summer of 2026. As the largest energy storage system in the Brittany region to date, BBB will conduct a one-year inverter retrofit experiment with the core goal of verifying the actual effectiveness of the energy storage system's transition from the traditional "grid following" mode to the advanced "grid construction" mode. This experiment aims to explore new technological paths for the stable operation of the power grid under the high proportion of renewable energy integration.

The essential transformation from following to constructing a network

At present, most energy storage projects in France operate in grid following mode, and inverters rely on grid frequency signals for passive response. And the construction technology represents a fundamental change - inverters can independently define voltage and frequency parameters like traditional synchronous generators, actively providing stable support for the power grid. This mode makes the energy storage system the "anchor point" of the power grid, which can actively respond to disturbances at the moment of occurrence, significantly enhancing the stability and resilience of the power system, and providing key technical support for the large-scale grid connection of renewable energy in the future. Keywords: Energy Storage Latest News, Energy Storage New Energy News

Localized application of global experience

Neoen has introduced its accumulated experience in energy storage development and operation in markets such as Australia, Sweden, and Finland to France. The company's global energy storage assets have reached 2.8GW/8.1GWh, of which the Australian Collie Battery project has a scale of 560MW/2240MWh. Through the BBB project, Neoen and RTE aim to validate the potential of grid based energy storage in providing advanced grid services such as inertia response, black start, and resonance suppression. The RTE R&D Director pointed out that this experiment is not only France's first attempt to actively improve grid stability through energy storage, but also represents an important step in the forefront exploration of the European power system.Editor/Gao Xue