Aukera Energy has secured a €60mn debt facility from Kommunalkredit Austria to finance the construction of its first stand-alone battery energy storage system in Romania. The 250 MW/500 MWh project, located in Gura Ialomitei, Ialomita County, will be one of the largest storage projects in Central and Eastern Europe and will be delivered in two phases. Phase 1 construction is underway, and the full project is expected to be operational by mid-2026. Kommunalkredit acted as Sole Mandated Lead Arranger.

“We are very pleased to partner with Kommunalkredit on this landmark transaction for Aukera and for the Romanian storage market. BESS projects are playing an increasingly vital role in providing the flexibility and reliability needed to balance supply and demand in a rapidly evolving generation mix, stabilizing grid frequency, and ensuring consistent power delivery. This first financing for Aukera in Romania brings together our market-leading local and international expertise across the platform to deliver the first project in our 2GW Romanian BESS pipeline. It demonstrates our ability to deliver large, complex projects across multiple markets, as we expand our European generation and storage platform,” Aiden Yates, Aukera’s Managing Director for Project Finance, said.

“This project marks a decisive step toward strengthening Romania’s energy resilience. By supporting Aukera’s first battery storage initiative, we are helping to substantially improve grid stability, in line with Kommunalkredit‘s vision to accelerate the energy transition across Europe,” Arnaud de Laportaliere, Senior Transactor at Kommunalkredit, commented.

“Our storage team has been at the forefront of the UK market since its earliest days – developing, designing, delivering, and operating projects that helped establish the standards now shaping Europe’s energy storage industry. Building on that experience, we’re bringing proven engineering, procurement, and operational excellence to Romania to deliver assets that address real, current system needs – improving grid stability and increasing the utilisation of renewable generation and the transmission network. By optimising how and when power is delivered, BESS also helps lower overall system costs, ultimately benefiting end consumers through more efficient and affordable electricity,” Bozkurt Aydinoglu, Aukera’s Head of Storage, added.

The principal advisors for the transaction were Akereos Capital (financial), Clifford Chance Badea (borrower legal), Dentons (lender legal) and Rina Consulting (lender technical).

About Aukera Energy

Aukera was founded in 2021 by experienced renewable energy executives Pascal Emsens and Catalin Breaban and focuses on the development, construction, and operation of solar, wind, and battery storage projects. The company is currently developing a pipeline of over 16 GW across the UK, Germany, Belgium, Italy, and Romania. Aukera is currently in pre-construction or construction on approximately 800 MW of projects across its core geographies, including 450 MW of BESS capacity. The company is headquartered in Brussels and has offices in London, Edinburgh, Berlin, Rome, and Bucharest.

About Kommunalkredit

As an infra banking expert, Kommunalkredit specializes in financing and advising forward-looking infrastructure projects throughout Europe. It is thus strengthening Europe’s resilience, promoting economic growth and accelerating the green and industrial transition. With lending, advisory, asset management and public finance as its core business fields, the bank supports projects in the areas of energy & environment, communication & digitalization, transport and social infrastructure. Kommunalkredit’s tailored solutions support infrastructure and energy projects (I&E) as well as corporate and acquisition financing – throughout the entire project life cycle and along the capital structure. Founded in 1958, Kommunalkredit has enabled new infrastructure and energy financing with a volume of around EUR 10 billion since 2020 alone. The majority shareholder is European private equity firm Altor, which focuses on innovative companies and the green transition, and has raised more than EUR 12 billion since its inception.