Energy storage could get a big boost if California officials green-light plans by utility Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to move forward with some 567 megawatts of capacity.
Included in the mix is more than 180 MW of lithium-ion battery storage from Elon Musk’s company Tesla. The Tesla-supplied battery array would be owned by PG&E and would offer a 4-hour discharge duration. The other projects would be owned by third parties and operated on behalf of the utility under long-term contracts. All of the projects would be in and around Silicon Valley in the South Bay area.
Once deployed, the storage would sideline three gas-fired power plants—the 605-MW Metcalf Energy Center, the 47-MW Feather River Energy Center, and the 47-MW Yuba City Energy Center—that lack long-term energy supply contracts with utilities. Even without the contracts, the state’s grid operator identified the units as needed for local grid reliability. It, and independent power producer Calpine, which owns the plants, asked federal regulators to label the plants as “must run.” That would let them generate electricity and be paid for it even without firm utility contracts.
Both PG&E and California’s utility regulators object to that idea. They argue that the must-run designation without firm contracts would distort the state’s power market and lead to unfair prices. Backing up their objection, regulators earlier this year directed the utility to seek offers to replace the gas-fired power plants with energy storage.
The utility says that its search prompted more than two dozen storage proposals with 100 variations. PG&E narrowed the list to four, which it presented to state regulators in late June.
One of the projects, Vistra Energy Moss Landing storage project, would be owned by Dynegy Marketing and Trade, a unit of Vistra Energy Corp. The holding company manages more than 40 gigawatts of generating capacity across 12 states. The project would be a transmission-connected, stand-alone lithium-ion battery energy storage resource in Monterey County. The facility, which would feature a 300-MW, 4-hour duration battery array, could enter service in December 2020 under a 20-year contract.
A second project, Hummingbird Energy Storage, would be owned by a unit of esVolta, a new company that is partnering with Oregon-based Powin Energy Corp. and Australia-based Blue Sky Alternative Investments. The Santa Clara County–sited resource would include a 75-MW, 4-hour-duration Li-ion battery array. It also could enter service in December 2020 and would operate under a 15-year contract.
Recent Comments