11 months. 15 MWh. 3 containers. 1 grid connection point. When our Italian partner DLC Energia secured a co-location agreement with a 220 kV substation operator outside Brescia, the schedule looked tight from day one. This article walks through how the SMS project engineering team scoped, manufactured, shipped and commissioned the largest BESS hub we've delivered in Europe to date.
The brief
Provide a 4-hour duration, 15 MWh / 3.75 MW BESS optimized for the Italian MSD ancillary services market, with TERNA market participant pre-qualification, full PPC integration, and commissioning before the next FCAS auction window.
Net constraints:
- Civil works completion: month 6 from PO
- Equipment on site: month 8
- Energization & FAT: month 10
- TERNA pre-qualification testing: month 11
System architecture
We chose 10 × SMS-Cont-5MWh liquid-cooled containers, paired with two centralized 6.25 MW SKID PCS and a single 22/132 kV step-up transformer. The configuration trades container count for fewer string PCS units — simplifying control hierarchy and reducing the SCADA point count by ~40% vs a distributed architecture.
Key design decisions:
- 314 Ah cell platform. Pre-qualified Tier-1 supplier with documented 10,000-cycle test data — non-negotiable for the 15-year warranty period required by the merchant model.
- SMS Cloud EMS + DLC's bidding stack. Open Modbus TCP & IEC 60870-5-104 interfaces let DLC's algo bid into MSD without rebuilding our control layer.
- Cell-level fusing + perfluorohexanone suppression. Required for the local fire authority's risk assessment under the Dynamo Kyiv regional code.
Manufacturing & logistics
Production at our Dongguan factory began the week PO was signed — possible because we maintain a rolling 60-day raw-material inventory for the SMS-Cont-5MWh platform. FAT was completed in 11 weeks; DLC sent two engineers for witness testing. Sea freight from Shekou to Genoa took 27 days; site delivery via inland trailer added another 4. We pre-staged the cooling-system commissioning kits at our Italian warehouse, eliminating ~3 weeks of customs delay during commissioning.
Site integration
Civil works ran in parallel with manufacturing. Foundation slabs (240 mm reinforced) and underground cable trays were ready 5 days before container delivery. We deployed a 4-engineer commissioning crew from our Italian subsidiary plus 2 senior engineers from China HQ for the first 3 weeks. Container-to-container communication and PCS sync took 12 days; full-system grid-tied energization completed on schedule.
TERNA pre-qualification
The decisive milestone was TERNA's pre-qualification testing for MSD market participation. We ran the prescribed test sequence (frequency response, voltage ride-through, communication latency, dispatchable power profile) over 14 days. The system passed all categories on first attempt — credit goes to DLC's algo team for tight tuning, but our PCS grid-forming firmware (v3.2) made the response symmetry trivial to achieve.
Lessons learned
- Pre-staged spares win schedules. Three weeks of customs uncertainty is the difference between hitting and missing an auction window. The Italian warehouse paid for itself on this single project.
- Single PCS per 25 MWh simplifies control. We initially scoped 4× 3.125 MW PCS to spread the risk; consolidating to 2× 6.25 MW reduced control-loop tuning iterations from weeks to days.
- Witness FAT builds trust. DLC's engineers caught two minor issues in factory that would have taken days to resolve in field. Highly recommended for first projects with new customers.
- Local engineers matter. Mandarin-speaking Italian engineers in our Italian subsidiary cut commissioning time substantially — communications between Italian site teams and our China R&D was zero-friction.
What's next
DLC has signed for a second hub (75 MWh / 18.75 MW) in Piedmont, scheduled for Q4 2026 energization. We've already pre-allocated container slots in the Q3 production schedule. If you're considering a similar deployment in Ukraine or elsewhere in Europe, our Italian commercial team can be reached at europe@sms-storage.com.
Tags: Container BESS Ukraine Grid Services Project Engineering
