IPS Signs First-Ever EU Tripartite Agreement on Energy Storage
International Power Supply (IPS), the Sofia-based power electronics and battery energy storage system (BESS) manufacturer behind the EXERON brand, has signed the European Union's first-ever Tripartite Agreement on Energy Storage, joining Energy Ministers from EU Member States and European Commissioner for Energy and Housing Dan Jørgensen at a signing ceremony in Luxembourg on 26 June 2026, held in the margins of the Council of Energy Ministers meeting.
Alexander Rangelov, CEO of IPS, signed the Agreement on behalf of the company and was invited to present a concrete Bulgarian success story to the assembled Ministers and the Commissioner during the ceremony.
The Tripartite Agreement is the first of its kind dedicated to energy storage, building on the model established by the EU's earlier Wind Charter and Solar Charter. Its objective is to accelerate the short-term deployment of storage capacity across Europe, strengthen the security and flexibility of the electricity system, and reinforce the EU's own manufacturing base in a sector regarded as critical to the continent's industrial and energy independence. Signatories, including national governments, manufacturers, and energy-consuming industries, have committed to concrete storage pledges for the 2026–2028 period, with the European Commission coordinating delivery and tracking progress annually through 2028.
"For IPS, this was more than a ceremony," said Alexander Rangelov, CEO of IPS. "It was recognition for Bulgarian engineering, European manufacturing, and the belief that energy security and industrial competitiveness must be built together. Europe must not remain only a customer of critical grid technologies. Europe can and should become the owner and builder of its own sovereign energy backbone. We may not have the scale of our eastern competitors yet, but we have proven that Europe can build, manufacture, innovate and compete," he added.
A Bulgarian Manufacturing Milestone
During the ceremony, IPS presented the story of its utility-scale BESS Gigafactory in Sofia - built in just seven months with zero public subsidy and launched in October 2025. Within nine months of launch, the facility had already delivered multiple utility-scale BESS systems to clients across Europe. The gigafactory holds strategic project status under the EU's Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA), reflecting its significance to Europe's clean-energy manufacturing capacity.
Commitments under the tripartite agreement on energy storage
As part of the agreement, developers of energy storage and renewable energy projects will provide yearly estimates of new energy storage and hybrid projects and their volumes, while energy-consuming industries have committed to developing energy storage projects at their own sites and to giving clearer information about when and how much electricity they use. This visibility on the projects pipeline is essential to provide clarity and certainty to investors.
On their side, Member States will support the energy storage sector by removing barriers that slow progress. They committed to enable the National Regulatory Authorities to set or approve cost-reflective and non-discriminatory network tariffs that stimulate flexibility. Where necessary, Member States will provide financial support for energy storage rollout and manufacturing through national and EU funding, and in line with State aid rules, such as the Clean Industrial State Aid Framework (CISAF).
As an important contribution in the implementation of the agreed actions, financial institutions (namely national and regional banks, including promotional ones) will share expertise on storage projects to make them more attractive to investors, and work with the EIB Group and one another to increase the impact of funding for storage solutions.
The Commission will support EU Member States in creating funding schemes for storage and help the decarbonisation of energy-consuming industries, including through the Industrial Decarbonisation Bank. It will also explore ways of supporting energy storage deployment under the Innovation Fund, update network rules to encourage storage deployment, and assess possible ways to improve how public sector transition investments match EU environmental objectives when reviewing the Taxonomy Disclosure rules in early 2027.
