Tucson Electric Power Co. recently completed two big energy-storage projects aimed at taking advantage of new technologies and smoothing out the intermittent generation of renewable-energy sources like solar and wind.
Chicago-based E.ON Climate & Renewables finished building a 10-megawatt capacity lithium-ion battery-storage facility and an accompanying 2-megawatt solar array at the University of Arizona Tech Park southeast of Tucson, known as the Iron Horse project.
In December, a subsidiary of Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources completed construction of a 10-megawatt lithium-ion energy storage system at a TEP substation near Interstate 10 and West Grant Road.
TEP will buy the solar power from E.On and pay capacity charges for both battery systems under power-purchase agreements.
The TEP installations are short-duration battery systems intended to bridge the time it takes to bring supplemental generating sources online after an outage, and to help with grid reliability by shoring up voltage and regulating power frequency when needed.
Long-duration storage systems are designed to keep customers’ lights on for hours during an outage — or even replace natural-gas plants fired up to handle demand peaks.
But those are more costly and have been mainly pursued in places with high electric rates like California and Hawaii.
TEP spokesman Joe Barrios said the short-run battery systems will help reduce costs by supplanting other grid-reliability measures.
“This is a pretty new technology that has become reliable, and the cost is now reasonable,” Barrios said.
TEP expects to spend about $1.7 million annually on the two new storage systems combined, under contract with E.On and NextEra.
Under a plan approved by the Arizona Corporation Commission, TEP will pay for the services through an existing purchased fuel and power surcharge that will cost the average customer about 13 cents per month, Barrios said.
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