The Bulgarian Ministry of Energy recently announced that it has granted construction permits for energy storage projects totaling 9,712.89MWh based on the results of its 2024 independent energy storage tender, far exceeding the original target of 3,000MWh by three times.

Promoted by the country's "National Infrastructure Program for the Storage of Electricity from Renewable Energy Sources (RESTORE)", the tender attracted 151 investment proposals from companies and investors, totaling nearly 5 billion Bulgarian levs (about US$2.9 billion). In the end, the Ministry of Energy selected 82 winning projects with a total investment of more than 1.15 billion levs (about US$675 million), which will be funded through the "National Recovery and Resilience Program (NPVU)".

The winning projects will be distributed across the country and connected to the national transmission system (ESO EAD) or local distribution network, and are required to be completed and put into operation before March 2026.

The Bulgarian Ministry of Energy stated that the implementation of the RESTORE project will "ensure a high level of grid balancing capabilities and create the necessary conditions for the successful integration of renewable energy power."

In November 2024, Bulgaria completed its first renewable energy auction, with a total tender of more than 3GW of power generation capacity and 1.176GW of energy storage capacity, which also received financial support from NPVU.