09.10.2025.
A EUR 19.8 million grant agreement, financed from the Modernisation Fund, was signed today at the Ministry of Economy for the strategic project "Smart Grid-scale Energy Storage". The goal is to strengthen energy independence and accelerate the integration of renewable energy sources (RES) in Croatia. The contract was signed by the minister of economy, Ante Šušnjar, the minister of environment and green transition, Marija Vučković, the director of the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund, Luka Balen, and the CEO of IE-ENERGY LLC, Željko Šmitran.Under the project, a battery energy storage system with a capacity of 60 MW and a capacity of 120 MWh will be built at the IMPOL-TLM site in Šibenik, with the investment totalling approx. EUR 60 million. The grant will be used to finance the second, key phase of the project (50 MW), and the contract is the result of years of work, which included a notification to the European Commission regarding state aid issues.
"This storage system ensures a reliable future for our power system. With this project, which is fully aligned with our ambitious NECPs, we are providing stability to Croatia's RES potential and giving the Croatian Transmission System Operator (HOPS) the tools to balance the grid," said minister of economy, Ante Šušnjar.
Director of the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund, Luka Balen, pointed out that the Fund actively participated in the allocation of funding from the Modernisation Fund to support the investments of Croatian companies in the green transition. "This project is particularly interesting given Croatia’s vast potential in the use of RES. The production of renewable energy is fluctuating, and balancing this production will enable its optimal use. To ensure that as many investors as possible decide to invest in such systems, the Fund, in cooperation with the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Green Transition and the Ministry of Economy, also co-finances citizens through our programmes. To illustrate, today a call worth 20.5 million euros was reopened, and through it we will co-finance power plants homeowners installed in 2025, and next week we will also publish a call with a budget of 7.5 million euros for those installed during 2024. This will significantly reduce electricity costs for citizens, as well as CO2 emissions," Balen announced.
In addition to providing vital balancing services, the storage system will enable a considerably greater integration of RES, especially in areas such as Dalmatia, and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. This also lays the foundations for the use of advanced network services, such as virtual inertia.
Bearing in mind that the first phase (10 MW) is already in an advanced stage of implementation, the entire project will be completed next year. Croatia is thus making a rapid and concrete step towards the goal of climate neutrality and confirms its leading role in the modern energy transition.
