Croatia's battery queue hit 854 MW in one year — and the market is just opening
HOPS processed 13 battery projects totalling 854 MW of connection studies in 2025, while HEP ODS opened the distribution grid to storage. What this means for developers entering Croatia.
What happened
Croatia's transmission operator HOPS ran connection studies (EOTRP) for 13 battery storage projects with a combined 854 MW in 2025 alone, according to the Croatian Chamber of Economy's renewable energy association. At the same time, distribution operator HEP ODS confirmed the regulatory framework for battery storage is ready, with three connection models available for investors. Sources: HGK position paper on battery storage, March 2026 (hgk.hr); pv Europe, 22 January 2026 (pveurope.eu).
Why Croatia is interesting right now
Croatia is late to batteries compared to Germany or Italy, which is exactly the opportunity. The first movers are only now proving the model: the 60 MW BESS Šibenik project, built around Tesla MegaPack units, passed HOPS prequalification for aFRR and mFRR balancing services in May 2026 — the first battery in the country to do so. Early projects get the best reserve prices, because every battery that connects later bids into the same auctions and pushes clearing prices down.
Check this on the Croatia map
Substations scored for BESS, solar, wind and data centers, plus land positions and instant site checks.
The catch: connection procedure is the bottleneck
Large standalone batteries connecting to the transmission grid follow the full connection procedure, identical to a power plant. HEP ODS also signalled that restrictions on charging storage from the grid are likely. That makes substation choice decisive: the wrong location can mean years of study or a charging restriction that guts your arbitrage revenue.
What to do with this
Screen substations before you spend on studies. Gridscouter's Croatia map ranks every substation, shows the 110 kV and transmission network, and finds land positions around each substation — and our 21 Croatian county pages (trafostanice) break the network down region by region. Every Gridscouter plan starts with 14 days of full access for €0 today. Cancel any time before the trial ends and you pay nothing.
Gridscouter scores are estimates from open map data, not grid operator capacity figures. Always confirm connection capacity with the grid operator.