An agreement to construct a 20MW lithium-ion battery energy storage system (BESS) has been approved by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), which would reduce reliance on natural gas generation.
Last week, LADWP’s board of water and power commissioners voted to approve the agreement with Doosan GridTech, which says it primarily executes energy storage projects for utilities to help integrate more renewables on their networks. LADWP serves over four million customers with water and power, making it by some measures the largest municipal utility in the US.
In addition to reducing the usage of natural gas-fired plants, it is hoped that the proposed Beacon Energy Storage System, located near Beacon Solar Plant in the Mojave Desert, will allow better utilisation of the 600MW of solar PV installed in the area, as well as some 135MW of wind generation.
The plant should be completed and connected by March 2018, a date which LADWP brought forward from a 2020 targeted completion date, due to capacity shortfall fears brought to light in the past two years since the Aliso Canyon gas leak which has already led to the fast-tracked development of around 100MWh of energy storage projects by various utilities, developers and system integrators in California.
Strategic location
A presentation on energy storage in LADWP’s service area, its potential and proposed projects including Beacon Ridge said that the project will cost around US$19.2 million, would add flexible reserve and system balancing to the local grid and mitigate for the variable nature of renewable energy generation output.
Recent Comments