ESS Tech, Inc. announced that it has partnered with Sapele Power Plc (?Sapele?), a leading Nigerian integrated energy company specializing in power generation, to provide an initial 1 MW /8 MWh of long-duration energy storage. This agreement represents the largest battery storage system export to Africa financed by the Export-Import Bank of the United States of America to date and will improve the efficiency of Sapele?s existing assets by providing ancillary services. According to the International Energy Agency, an estimated 40% of all the electricity consumed in Nigeria is produced from backup generators due to unreliable power supply caused by limited grid infrastructure, underinvestment and ineffective regulatory frameworks.

Projects such as this demonstrate the opportunity to improve grid reliability and efficiency through the addition of battery storage resources. As ESS? first project in Africa, the company?s iron-flow technology will provide safe and sustainable LDES which will enable load-smoothing, peak demand shifting and enable the Sapele power station?s turbines to ramp up and down efficiently.

ESS? sale to Sapele was supported by the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM), the official export credit agency of the United States that aims to support American jobs by facilitating the export of U.S. goods and services. The deal will be financed in part by EXIM and is one of the first energy storage projects in Nigeria and the entire sub-Saharan Africa region.