Program uses network of residential storage batteries to help balance New England grid
May 22, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
May 22, 2021
A new program from Vermont-based Green Mountain Power (GMP) marks the first time that stored energy in a network of residential batteries is being used to help keep the regional grid balanced, GMP said on May 13.
GMP’s new frequency regulation pilot program allows customers to share stored energy with regional grid operator ISO New England (ISO-NE) to keep a steady, regulated flow of energy on the grid at all times, a critical function for regional system safety and reliability for customers, GMP said.
It noted that ISO-NE is continually calling on qualified regional energy producers to increase or decrease output to help maintain that important balanced flow of power on the grid at all times. Typically, this cycling on and off of energy is done by ISO-NE with fossil fuel generators through the regulation market, a wholesale energy market that also pays participants for their consistent, quick, and accurate responses to grid needs, which can shift minute-to-minute.
Using their network of Powerwall batteries and Tesla Autobidder software, GMP is the first utility to perform this key grid service in the wholesale power market with stored energy distributed from customers’ homes. The project is also benefitting all GMP customers through reduced power supply costs, according to GMP. It creates a new value stream for all GMP customers in addition to the ongoing benefits of GMP’s earlier home energy storage programs, GMP said.
GMP successfully entered the regulation market with this network of residential power sources after three months of testing with ISO-NE, and partnerships with ISO-NE, Tesla and Customized Energy Solutions (CES), a software solutions company. Tesla coordinates the distributed batteries to respond to signals from ISO-NE and aggregates critical data about the response, while CES provides the key integrations between Tesla and ISO-NE.
A total of 200 GMP customers are currently enrolled in the program and a prerequisite is that they already have two Powerwall batteries through a GMP program.
GMP plans to expand this pilot program in the future. Customers sharing energy through the program are paid $13.50 per month on their energy statements. This includes a share for their program participation and for the increased use of their batteries, which can charge and discharge rapidly for periods of time each month.
GMP takes steps to ensure that customers have backup power available if weather is predicted to cause outages.
In 2017, GMP was the first utility to partner with Tesla, and launched the first Powerwall pilot program.
GMP is now the first utility with tariffed home energy storage programs for customers. These programs provide participating customers with backup power in residential batteries in exchange for sharing some of that stored energy to reduce peak demand on the grid.
There are about 3,000 Powerwalls installed in customers’ homes, and GMP’s network of stored energy, including Powerwalls, car chargers, and utility-scale batteries, helped reduce costs for customers by more than $3 million in 2020 through peak reduction, according to GMP.
GMP serves approximately 266,000 residential and business customers in Vermont.
Ribbon cutting held for new Guam Power Authority utility-scale battery energy storage system
May 19, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
May 18, 2021
Officials from Guam’s Consolidated Commission on Utilities and Guam Power Authority (GPA) on May 14 cut a ceremonial ribbon to mark GPA bringing a utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) onto Guam’s island-wide power grid.
Officials participating in the ribbon cutting included GPA General Manager John M. Benavente, P.E., Consolidated Commission on Utilities Commissioner Pedro Roy Martinez, Lt. Governor Joshua Tenorio, Governor Lou Leon Guerrero, Consolidated Commission on Utilities Chairman Joey Duenas; Senator Clynt Ridgell; Guam Public Utilities Commission Chairman Jeffrey Johnson, GPA ESS Project Manager Lorraine Shinohara, P.E., GPA Assistant General Manager Engineering and Technical Services John J. Cruz, Jr., P.E. and Guam Public Utilities Commission Chief Administrative Law Judge Frederick Horecky.
Fully operational on March 1, 2021, the project was designed and constructed by LG CNS. The system is comprised of two sites. One site is 24 megawatts (MW)/6 megawatt hours (MWh) in size, while the second site is 16 MW/16 MWh in size.
A video that provides an overview of the BESS can be viewed here.
GPA is on-track to achieve a 50% renewable energy mix by 2030 and a mandated 100% renewable energy mix by 2045.
The American Public Power Association offers a Public Power Energy Storage Tracker for association members that summarizes energy storage projects undertaken by members that are currently online.
In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander (API) Heritage Month – commemorated each May – the American Public Power Association’s Public Power Current newsletter recently spotlighted the leadership roles our API colleagues have at public power utilities across the United States and at our U.S. territories in the Western Pacific. We kicked off our coverage by sharing updates from Guam.
Rhode Island’s Pascoag Utility District turns to batteries to avoid a transmission upgrade
May 18, 2021
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
May 18, 2021
The Pascoag Utility District in Rhode Island plans to use an energy storage project as an alternative to upgrading transmission lines.
The 3-megawatt (MW), 9-megawatt hour (MWh) lithium-ion battery array is being developed by Agilitas Energy, which is beginning the pre-construction phase of the project. The battery system is expected to enter service in the second quarter of 2022.
Pascoag Utility District is contracting for all the battery system’s capacity, both storage and generation. The contract also includes a sharing arrangement on the lowering of the public power utility’s capacity and transmission costs, which vary depending on the utility’s load at times of peak demand on the ISO-New England system.
The batteries will cycle on Pascoag Utility District’s system, charging and discharging and shifting load between peak and off-peak periods and will provide peak shaving services to the utility and ancillary services to ISO-New England.
“The battery storage system will allow us to modernize our infrastructure and avoid the more costly re-construction of existing transmission lines,” Mike Kirkwood, general manager of Pascoag Utility District, said in a statement. “The battery energy storage systems help fulfill our goal to control costs while we assure reliable power.”
The battery storage project was attractive to the Pascoag Utility District because the utility was starting to reach the thermal limits on its existing connection to the grid. The project “avoids $6 million to $12 million in costs that would have been needed to completely rebuild the two National Grid 5-mile, 13.8-kilovolt (kV) feeder lines that connect us to the outside world,” Kirkwood said via email. “Some work is still needed on those lines, but much less than was initially anticipated because of our substation work and the battery project.”
National Grid’s system impact study put “the cost of rebuilding the transmission lines at $6 million with a confidence level of -50%/+200%, meaning the actual costs could have escalated to twice the original estimate,” Kirkwood said. “We had to rebuild our substation no matter what alternative we chose,” he said, “so the battery part of the project is helping us avoid the $6-12 million in the complete rebuilding of the lines.”
Pascoag Utility District is paying about $200,000 in interconnection costs associated with the storage project with funds from a grant allocated by the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources for unique energy efficiency projects.
Pascoag Utility District qualified for the grant because the battery project, together with the work it is doing on the substation connecting the utility’s system to the New England grid, qualifies as a non-wires alternative. The utility also received $1.4 million in financing for the substation project through Rhode Island’s Efficient Building Funds program, which allowed Pascoag Utility District to receive low cost financing from the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank, a quasi-state agency that finances public infrastructure.
“The operation of this system will obviate the need for adding costly transmission infrastructure and create a win-win for all parties including Pascoag’s customers,” Barrett Bilotta, president of Agilitas Energy, said in a statement.
Last year, then-Governor Gina Raimondo signed an executive order that committed Rhode Island to meeting 100 percent of its electricity demand with renewable and non-fossil fuel resources by 2030. Many energy experts see energy storage playing a key role in that transition with its ability to store electricity generated by renewable energy resources and discharge it at times when demand is high or renewable resources are not available.
The American Public Power Association offers a Public Power Energy Storage Tracker for association members that summarizes energy storage projects undertaken by members that are currently online.
Massachusetts lawmakers tour Reading Municipal Light Department battery storage system
May 5, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
May 5, 2021
A group of Massachusetts state lawmakers on April 23 toured the Reading Municipal Light Department’s (RMLD) Minuteman Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) in North Reading, Mass.
The tour provided an opportunity for the lawmakers to see how the RMLD, a Municipal Light Plant (MLP), utilized a $1 million state grant to demonstrate the capabilities of energy storage. RMLD received the grant in 2018.
In addition to seeing the system firsthand, the lawmakers were briefed on how RMLD utilizes the BESS to reduce wholesale electricity costs for its customers as part of its demand response program.
The 5-megawatt, 10-megawatt hour BESS was constructed at RMLD’s North Reading substation and became operational on June 1, 2019. The system is owned by NextEra Energy Resources and operated under an energy storage agreement between NextEra and the RMLD.
The primary purpose of the unit is coincident peak demand management for reductions during critical peak times when electricity is most expensive and to mitigate ISO New England’s need to dispatch less environmentally friendly generators.
In the 19 months that the BESS has been operational, the RMLD has realized net savings of $346,000 by reducing demand during annual capacity and monthly transmission peaks.
Lawmakers who attended the tour were Jeffrey Roy, new chairman of the Massachusetts Legislature’s Joint Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy (TUE) Committee and six TUE Committee members: House Minority Leader Brad Jones, Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, Rep. Joan Meschino, Rep. Kate Lipper-Garabedian, Rep. David Robertson, and Rep. Rich Haggerty.
CAISO launches initiative to explore market reforms tied to grid-scale storage growth
April 29, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 29, 2021
The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) on April 28 launched an initiative to explore market reforms in anticipation of a surge of grid-scale energy storage on its system in the next few years.
CAISO in a news release noted that it is projecting a four-fold increase in the amount of battery storage on its system from late last year to this summer.
At the end of 2020, the ISO had about 250 megawatts (MW) of storage resources — primarily 4-hour batteries — connected to the grid. It currently has about 500 MW on its system and expects to have a total of 2,000 MW by August 1. This rapid pace of growth is expected to continue in the years ahead, the grid operator said.
“Unlocking the full value of energy storage resources requires changes to the ISO market to better align price signals and cost recovery mechanisms with the reliability and operational needs of the grid,” CAISO said.
The ISO said it intends to leverage expertise from across the storage industry and to share its findings through such initiatives as the Global Power System Transformation Consortium that was formally launched in April with the U.S. Department of Energy and utilities.
CAISO publishes issue paper
CAISO on April 28 published an issue paper on possible energy storage enhancements, outlining the current challenges and seeking input on new market mechanisms to fully integrate storage and maximize its use on California’s electricity system.
The grid operator said that the issue paper effectively launches the energy storage enhancements stakeholder initiative process, which will invite feedback from all industry sectors, particularly the storage resource community, on the market redesigns and their effects.
Pennsylvania report recommends increasing solar-plus-storage projects
April 25, 2021
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
April 25, 2021
Pennsylvania should pair grid-scale solar arrays with battery energy storage to help reduce carbon dioxide emissions and increase grid resilience, according to a report released by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
One way to encourage the growth of energy storage would be to set a state energy storage capacity target, the report, Pennsylvania Energy Storage Assessment: Status, Barriers, and Opportunities, said, noting that seven other states have already set energy storage targets.
The report’s aim, which was commissioned by the DEP’s Energy Programs Office and prepared by Strategen Consulting, was to determine the best path forward to increasing energy storage statewide. The report was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s State Energy Program.
Pennsylvania currently has about 1.5 gigawatts (GW) of energy storage capacity in the form of 22 operating or announced energy storage projects, including 1.07 GW of pumped hydro storage facilities, 18 megawatts (MW) of lithium-ion batteries, 12.5 MW of lead carbon batteries, 6 MW of ice and chilled water thermal storage, as well as smaller amounts of other technologies.
“Pennsylvania’s climate continues to get warmer, and we’ve already started seeing the impacts, with increasing swings in temperature and extreme weather,” Patrick McDonnell, DEP secretary, said in a statement. “Solar-plus-storage can help in two ways: It can help slow down climate change by incorporating more clean renewable energy into Pennsylvanians’ daily electricity use, and it can also make the grid more reliable during extreme weather events, better protecting Pennsylvanians’ health and safety as well as critical facilities.”
Strategen used two scenarios in conducting the analysis in the report. One involved utility scale solar-plus-storage systems to serve the grid, the other used stand alone behind-the-meter energy storage systems that provide electricity customers with direct savings on their bills.
The first scenario found the potential for “significant economic and environmental benefits,” particularly if solar-plus-storage projects are supported by public- or ratepayer-funded investments to buy down the incremental costs of adding storage to solar power purchase agreements. Strategen found that about $65 million of public investment in energy storage could be used to leverage private investment and yield $545 million annually in grid and environmental benefits.
In the second scenario, the report found that under current retail rate structures, energy storage provides very limited value to customers in the form of direct bill savings. Analyzing multiple configurations of energy storage sizes and durations, the report found that most resulted in negative payback.
The report also looked at barriers to energy storage development and, among other recommendations, said Pennsylvania should “establish a storage procurement goal or target.” As an example, the report said a storage target linked to 25 percent of the state’s Solar Future plan could “equate to 1,500 MW of storage by 2030 and yield an estimated benefit of about $273 million per year.
The report also said a target for behind-the-meter energy storage could build on existing energy peak reduction targets overseen by the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission.
Pennsylvania’s Solar Future plan calls for 10 percent, or about 11 GW, of the state’s electricity to come from solar energy by 2030.
The storage report also recommends 14 other measures to foster energy storage investment and integration, including convening a statewide storage issues forum, designating public funding to accelerate storage deployment, establishing incentive programs for storage projects, and accelerating microgrid deployment at critical facilities.
NYPA signs agreement for planned deployment of zinc-air storage system
April 11, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 11, 2021
The New York Power Authority (NYPA) has signed an agreement with Zinc8 Energy Solutions Inc. and the University at Buffalo for the planned deployment of the company’s zinc-air energy storage system, marking a first demonstration of a long-duration use in New York State and a development that could support further integration of renewable power sources into the electric grid.
“NYPA continues to place a priority on fighting climate change and promoting a clean energy economy, and this first-of-its-kind long-duration solution has the potential to be deployed into a range of scalable applications,” said Gil Quiniones, NYPA president and CEO, in a statement. “The collaboration with Zinc8 and the University at Buffalo bodes well for a successful demonstration project that addresses the need for reliability of renewable energy resources and will help New York State help achieve its targets for energy storage.”
Selection of the site will allow for the demonstration of a 100 kilowatt/1 megawatt-hour zinc-air battery energy storage system in Buffalo to facilitate the wider use of renewable resources.
Zinc8 won a contract to accelerate the new technology in the Innovation Challenge, a partnership between NYPA and the Urban Future Lab at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering.
The deployment will provide peak shaving capability by leveling out peaks in electricity consumption, increase campus resiliency and assist in educating campus utility staff with new energy storage technology, NYPA said.
The project will also validate the performance reliability of the system and help determine the O&M and estimated life cycle costs.
Zinc8’s zinc-air energy storage system will be located less than a few hundred feet from the award-winning UB Solar Strand, a project that NYPA and University at Buffalo completed nearly a decade ago, and the newly relocated GRoW Clean Energy Center.
Under the agreement with Zinc8, NYPA will contribute to the installation costs of the energy storage system at University at Buffalo and share in the data generated during the demonstration period.
Wilson Energy seeks proposals for 100-MW battery energy storage systems
April 1, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
April 1, 2021
Wilson Energy, the City of Wilson, N.C.’s municipally-owned electric and natural gas utility, is now accepting proposals for 100-megawatt battery energy storage systems that can reduce wholesale power costs.
Wilson Energy’s purchased power demand costs are based on a monthly coincident peak hour. Wilson Energy targets its demand side management efforts to reduce the electric load during this period.
Wilson Energy is seeking bids for several systems of varying sizes for different locations within their electric service territory.
Systems with a total of 100 MW battery storage with the potential for an additional 21 MW will be considered.
Wilson Energy will use these systems in conjunction with the existing distributed generation program and residential load management switch program.
Wilson is located in eastern North Carolina, approximately 45 miles east of Raleigh. Wilson Energy operates the city’s electric distribution system serving 35,000 customers, and gas distribution system serving 13,000 customers.
Fully operational systems are expected to be in place by fourth quarter of 2022.
Proposals are due by 2:00 pm on Thursday, April 29.
Additional details are available here.
EIA’s energy outlook sees battery storage hitting 59 GW by 2050
March 30, 2021
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
March 30, 2021
As much as 59 gigawatts (GW) of battery energy storage will be in service installed by 2050, according to the most recent long-term energy outlook from the Energy Information Administration.
The “significant” growth of battery storage installations is the result of falling battery costs, growth in non-dispatchable renewables, and the application of the Investment Tax Credit to co-located storage systems, the EIA said in its Annual Energy Outlook 2021.
In a 2020 market update, the EIA said there were 125 operational battery storage systems in the United States at the end of 2018, representing 869 MW of power capacity and 1,236 megawatt hours (MWh) of energy capacity.
The Annual Energy Outlook 2021 includes alternative scenarios, or cases, that provide different projections based on the sensitivity of results to changes in the costs of renewables and the availability of oil and natural gas resources.
The projection of 59 GW of battery storage is the Annual Energy Outlook’s reference case. From a base of roughly 10 GW of energy storage in 2021, the EIA’s graph shows battery storage rising to 126 GW in the low oil and gas supply case and to 167 GW in the low renewables cost case.
The low oil and gas supply case assumes natural gas prices will be higher than the reference case, leading to a decline in gas-fired combined-cycle generation compared with the reference case that would be replaced by coal, nuclear, solar, and wind generation. That generation mix would require 67 GW more of battery storage capacity to be built than in the reference case.
The EIA’s reference case in the Annual Energy Outlook 2021 projects natural gas prices staying just below $4 per million British thermal units until 2050.
The low renewables cost case assumes a 40% reduction in the cost of renewables and energy storage compared with the reference case, which would lead to an increase of solar and wind generation that would replace coal, nuclear, and gas-fired combined-cycle generation. That scenario would result in 108 GW more of battery storage capacity being built compared with the reference case.
In all cases, 16 GW of battery storage installations would come from historical builds, announced projects, and state policy mandates, the EIA said. The EIA’s projections include battery storage facilities built on a standalone basis that charge from the power grid, as well as co-located systems that charges directly from an onsite solar photovoltaic power generator.
The EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook 2021 projects U.S. gross domestic product growing by 2.1% in its reference case, at 2.6% and its high economic growth case, and at 1.6% in its low growth case.
The Annual Energy Outlook 2021 noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has made its near-term projections more uncertain than in previous annual outlooks.
NREL outlines four-phase framework for energy storage development
February 11, 2021
by Ethan Howland
APPA News
February 11, 2021
With energy storage deployments growing, Department of Energy researchers have developed a four-phase framework to help utilities and others understand the technology’s possible evolution on the grid.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory researchers expect their report — The Four Phases of Storage Deployment: A Framework for the Expanding Role of Storage in the U.S. Power System — will help utilities, regulators and other stakeholders evaluate different pathways for storage and other sources of grid flexibility.
The report released late last month is the first publication to come out of NREL’s multi-year Storage Futures Study, which will explore energy storage technologies across a range of potential future cost and performance scenarios through 2050.
There are about 24,000 megawatts of energy storage on the U.S. grid, mainly in the form of pumped hydroelectric facilities that pump water from a lower reservoir to an upper reservoir when electric demand is low and then run the water through turbines back to the lower reservoir when power is needed.
Looking ahead, the NREL researches expect energy storage to develop in four phases, with the storage’s duration increasing in length in each successive phase.
The boundaries between the phases will be indistinct and the transition between phases will vary between regions, driven partly by how much wind and solar are added in each region, according to the researchers.
The first phase started around 2011 and is characterized by energy storage with no more than one-hour duration that can provide operating reserves, according to the report.
The potential deployment of short-duration storage is limited by the overall need for operating reserves, which is less than 30,000 MW in the United States, the researchers said.
The second phase, which has started in some areas, centers on storage with two to six hours of discharge duration to provide peaking capacity, according to the NREL framework.
Energy storage in the second phase gets most of its value from replacing traditional peaking resources, mainly natural gas-fired combustion turbines, the researchers said.
The opportunities for storage in the second phase are tied to the local or regional length of the peak demand period, the NREL researchers said, noting the phase could support at least 40,000 MW of storage.
The second phase is characterized in part by the positive feedback between solar photovoltaics increasing the value of storage by boosting its ability to provide capacity and storage increasing the value of solar by augmenting its energy value by shifting its output to periods of greater demand, the researchers said.
“Thus, greater deployment of solar PV could extend the storage potential of Phase 2 to more than 100 GW in the United States in scenarios where 25% of the nation’s electricity is derived from solar,” the researchers said.
The third phase of the storage framework is characterized by lower costs and technology improvements that enable storage to be cost-competitive while serving longer-duration peaks that last four to 12 hours, according to the report.
“Deployment in Phase 3 could include a variety of new technologies and could also see a reemergence of pumped storage, taking advantage of new technologies that reduce costs and siting constraints while exploiting the 8+ hour durations typical of many pumped storage facilities,” the NREL researchers said.
Technology options for the third phase include next-generation compressed air and various thermal or mechanical-based storage technologies, according to the report.
The researchers said storage in the third phase might provide additional sources of value, such as transmission deferral and additional time-shifting of solar and wind generation to address diurnal mismatches of supply and demand.
There is at least 100,000 MW of new storage opportunities in the third phase, according to the report.
The final phase is the most uncertain and is characterized by storage with durations lasting from days to months that could help achieve very high levels of renewable energy in the power sector, or as part of multi-sector decarbonization, the researchers said.
Potential phase-four technologies include production of liquid and gas fuels that can be stored in underground formations for a long time with very low loss rates, according to the report. There could be roughly 250,000 MW of storage in the fourth phase.
Upcoming reports from the Storage Futures Study will cover the economic potential of diurnal storage, the implications of widespread storage deployment and other topics.