May 9, 2017 – Santiago, Chile, Westborough, Massachusetts, USA and Tokyo, Japan – NEC Corporation announced that NEC Chile and NEC Energy Solutions will supply a 2 MW, 2 MWh lithium ion battery energy storage system to ENGIE Energía Chile. Competing under a demanding process against a robust group of other leading energy storage companies, NEC Chile was awarded and signed the contract with ENGIE Energía Chile last week. This project is the first smart energy project for NEC Chile and will be the first energy storage system which will be operated by the ENGIE group in the region.

"This energy storage project is the first step by ENGIE Energía Chile to establish a new energy storage business, in line with the change of the business strategy of the ENGIE group to invest less in traditional generating technologies and focus mainly on renewable energy. This project aims precisely in that direction and for its development we have chosen one of the most experienced companies in the world," said Axel Leveque, general manager of ENGIE Energía Chile.

The energy storage system will be installed in the second half of 2017 in the city of Arica, in the north of Chile. The system will be designed to offer ancillary services such as spinning reserve and time-shifting, helping the integration of PV and wind projects. It will be connected to an existing substation. This will mark the third project in Chile for NEC Energy Solutions since 2009, which had under previous ownership installed 32 MW of grid energy storage solutions in the country.

In cooperation with NEC Energy Solutions, NEC Chile will provide a GSS® grid storage solution including containerized lithium ion batteries, power conversion system, and NEC Energy Solutions proprietary AEROS® controls system, as well as service and maintenance packages to ENGIE.

"We are very pleased that ENGIE selected NEC as partner for its first energy storage project in Latin America and hope that this is a first step for a long lasting cooperation for the development of energy storage projects," said Herwig Ragossnig, Head of Business Development for Smart Energy in Latin America, NEC Chile.