Jordan’s energy sector faces dual challenges of security of supply due to its reliance on energy imports, as well as increasing electricity demand. As climate change makes the country hotter and drier, necessitating air conditioning and advanced water infrastructure like power-intensive desalination facilities, end-use sectors are also electrifying in line with climate goals. Jordan’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) released in October 2021 increased the country’s target to limiting GHG emissions to 31 percent [compared to Business as Usual (BAU) in 2012] by 2030.

The Summary of Jordan Energy Strategy 2020-2030 calls for “Increase the contribution of renewable energy projects to cover the Kingdom›s electricity requirements to 2400 MW by 2020 growing to 3200 MW by 2030.” Growing the transmission capacity from the south to the center of the Kingdom from 500 MW to 1400 MW unlocks wind and solar potential in the south of the country, but the variability of wind and solar effectively underloads the transmission without some type of storage. These factors highlight the criticality of developing a resilient and reliable electricity system using a range of new technologies and approaches, including large-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS).

As a new technology solution, BESS integration into the power system offers potential solutions for RE variability at the transmission and distribution levels, and for meeting new variable loads from electric vehicles. International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), in its document Renewables Readiness Assessment: Jordan, says that: “Storage brings substantial value for grid management, whether as a stand-alone asset or when integrated with a renewable power supply.” IRENA recommends “battery storage infrastructure at the generation, transmission, distribution and end use” and suggests that a storage code is needed. The technologies for BESS are rapidly changing, and costs are coming down significantly. U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab makes a projection that BESS costs will drop further 20% by 2030.

In this dynamic context, ESSA proposes to support an in-depth technical capacity building series for government of Jordan (GoJ) stakeholders.

Objectives:
- Provide audience with foundational knowledge of key BESS topics and increase capacity to regulate BESS systems (both from a planning and implementation perspective)
- Provide information on key BESS use cases to enable stakeholders to apply BESS technologies to future applications within Jordan.
- Improve stakeholder understanding of the analytical and regulatory steps necessary to enable BESS adoption within Jordan.