Sibenik's 60 MW / 120 MWh battery is open on the old TLM site - HRT prints about €60 million, the company page prints no euros, and the box sells a frequency service to the grid
On 5 November 2026 NGEN said it opened a 60 MW / 120 MWh battery with NextGrid Energy at the IMPOL-TLM complex in Sibenik, after a ceremony on 4 November. The page says the whole box has been on an automatic frequency contract with HOPS since September 2026, with no guaranteed revenue. It prints no euros and no solar. HRT, on 4 November, prints an investment of about €60 million, a Modernisation Fund line of up to €19.8 million with about €15 million expected to be drawn, and €16.8 million from the EBRD.
A large battery now sits in the old IMPOL-TLM complex in Sibenik. A factory on that ground does not get the box on its own meter. The company page connects it to the transmission grid and sells a balancing service to the grid operator.
On 5 November 2026 NGEN said it and NextGrid Energy had opened BESS Sibenik, 60 MW and 120 MWh. The ceremony was on 4 November at the IMPOL-TLM complex. NGEN calls it the first standalone battery of this size on the Croatian transmission grid. At full power it can take electricity from the grid or send it back for around two hours. 120 divided by 60 is 2, our arithmetic, and the page already says around two hours. The units are Tesla Megapack XL, connected at 110 kilovolts. 110 kilovolts is transmission pressure. It is not a cable into a workshop.
Since September 2026 the whole 60 MW has been on a contract with HOPS, the Croatian transmission operator, for automatic frequency restoration reserve. That service is a fast top-up or a fast soak when generation and use drift apart. It is closer to a retainer for a spare generator than to the cents on a factory bill. The retainer rate is not on the page.
NGEN says the battery operates without guaranteed revenue. Income depends on demand for flexibility services. The market risk sits with the owners and investors. The page names grant money from the EU Modernisation Fund and equity from the EBRD, Raiffeisen pension funds and IE-ENERGY. It prints no euros. NGEN's software checks the market and the grid and sets the battery every 15 minutes. A 15-minute setting is a control habit. It is not a price.
HRT, on 4 November, carries a Hina report from the opening. One sentence calls the system worth €60 million. A later sentence says the total investment is approximately €60 million. The page then prints the pieces it has. Approved support from the Modernisation Fund is up to €19.8 million. HRT's reason is project optimisation and lower capital costs. The firm expects to draw about €15 million of that grant. The EBRD put in €16.8 million. Raiffeisen's mandatory and voluntary pension funds put in an equivalent amount. HRT calls the EBRD cheque its first equity investment in a standalone, market-oriented battery. HRT also names IE-ENERGY among the capital investors and does not print an IE-ENERGY euro figure.
16.8 plus 16.8 plus 15 is 48.6, our arithmetic, reading "equivalent" as the same €16.8 million and "about €15 million" as 15. HRT does not print 48.6. It does not print the gap to about €60 million. 19.8 minus 15 is 4.8, our arithmetic. HRT prints both grant figures and the reason, and does not print 4.8. No page opened here prints a euro per megawatt, or the price of the frequency contract.
No solar plant is named on the NGEN page or the HRT page. The battery charges from the grid and feeds the grid. It does not make power.
A workplace tender already on this desk is the Dubrovnik airport solar and battery bids: two prices above a €4.2 million estimate, and no award yet. Sibenik is a different object. It is already open, it is on the transmission grid, and the company page leaves the euros blank.
Analogy: a tank on an old factory estate that the grid operator can fill and empty. It is not a cabinet on a workshop wall. The opening is real. The price on the company page is not.
Good: A company page with 60 MW / 120 MWh, a 4 November ceremony, Tesla units, 110 kilovolts, a frequency contract since September, and a clear line of no guaranteed revenue. HRT prints the euro lines the company page leaves out, including the "approximately".
Bad: The company page prints no euros. HRT's first €60 million sentence drops "approximately", and a later sentence puts it back. The grant expected, about €15 million, sits under the approved cap of €19.8 million. The frequency price is blank. No solar. 48.6 and 4.8 are our arithmetic.
Ugly: Treating €60 million as a figure NGEN printed. Adding the grant and the equity cheques and calling the gap a fact on the page. Reading 60 MW as a factory's own battery. Putting rooftop solar on a page that does not name it. Using the Dubrovnik bid prices as the Sibenik price.
Soft next step: write 60 MW / 120 MWh as a grid battery on a HOPS frequency contract, keep the euros on the HRT page, and leave the contract rate blank.
Source: NGEN, 5 Nov 2026, BESS Sibenik opening with NextGrid Energy. Primary for the 5 November page, the 4 November ceremony at the IMPOL-TLM complex, 60 MW / 120 MWh, the first standalone battery of this size on the Croatian transmission grid, around two hours at full power, Tesla Megapack XL units at 110 kV, the whole capacity on an aFRR contract with HOPS since September 2026, no guaranteed revenue, grant funding from the EU Modernisation Fund, equity from the EBRD, Raiffeisen pension funds and IE-ENERGY with no euros printed, and optimisation every 15 minutes. The page names no solar plant and no euro amount. HRT, 4 Nov 2026, Hina report on the Sibenik opening. Primary for a sentence that the system is worth €60 million, a later sentence that the investment is approximately €60 million, Modernisation Fund support approved up to €19.8 million, about €15 million expected to be drawn after project optimisation and lower capital costs, €16.8 million from the EBRD, an equivalent amount from Raiffeisen mandatory and voluntary pension funds, IE-ENERGY named with no euro figure, Tesla Megapack XL at 110 kV, two hours at 60 MW, and the aFRR contract since September 2026 covering the whole 60 MW. 120 divided by 60, 16.8 plus 16.8 plus 15, and 19.8 minus 15 are our arithmetic. The pages do not print 48.6, 4.8, a euro per megawatt, or the frequency price.