The summer of 2016 was one of dire warnings for Southern California energy consumers.
A massive methane leak from the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility outside Los Angeles had drained the region’s natural gas supply, and the word went out that gas shortages could disrupt the region’s power deliveries by the summer of 2017.
Amid fears of rolling blackouts across the nation’s second-largest metro area and beyond, utilities like Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric latched on to a solution that for years had been quietly deployed, but needed an event like a looming gas shortage to be thrust into prime time.
The solution was large-scale battery storage.
Thanks in part to California’s crisis, but also improving economics and new state policies, the technology is preparing for unprecedented growth in the United States over the next several years. As much as 1,800 megawatts of new energy storage — mostly from lithium-ion batteries — is expected to come online by 2021, according to GTM Research, which tracks the sector for the Energy Storage Association.
That’s eight times larger than total U.S. installed energy storage capacity in 2016 and should translate into nearly 5,900 megawatt-hours of stored electricity that can be dispatched quickly to address power outages, shave peak demand charges or simply enhance grid reliability, according to experts.
Energy storage is also critical to solving the intermittency challenges associated with renewable energy. That’s because batteries can smooth the ebbs and flows associated with wind and solar power by supplementing the grid when those resources are not available.
“One of the trends we’re seeing lately, and what could be a game-changer, is the level of utility interest and involvement,” said Anissa Dehamna, a principal research analyst and head of the energy storage team at Navigant Research. “We’ve had growth of a little over 200 percent [annually] in the past, and we’re expecting that trend to continue in the North American market.”
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