NERC sees growing role for battery storage, calls for further studies
February 10, 2021
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
February 10, 2021
Battery energy storage can provide essential services to ensure the reliability of the bulk power system, but system planners need to conduct more analysis in order integrate higher levels of storage into the grid, according to a report released by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) this week.
Battery energy storage can contribute to the reliable operation of the bulk power system “in a similar fashion as synchronous resources that provide those same necessary characteristics to the grid,” the report said.
“North America currently has less than 2 GW [gigawatts] of battery storage, but that capacity is projected to increase 100 percent to 4 GW by 2023,” Thomas Coleman, NERC’s chief technical advisor of engineering and standards, said in a statement. “It is abundantly clear that battery energy storage systems have a key role” in the “rapid transformation of the transmission grid” to meet goals for the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions while maintaining reliability, security and resilience, he added.
NERC cited Department of Energy projections that by 2050, 35 percent of the United States’ energy will come from wind power (404 GW) and 27 percent will come from solar photovoltaic power (632 GW).
As the amount of renewable generation on the grid has grown, battery energy storage has also expanded. In 2014, utility-scale battery storage capacity in North America was approximately 214 megawatts (MW). By 2019, battery storage increased to 899 MW. “This growth is expected to continue with utility scale storage levels reaching 3,500 MW by 2023,” the NERC report said.
Battery energy storage can play several roles in the transformation of the grid, NERC said, identifying functions such as supplying peaking capacity; minimizing the need for new generation and transmission infrastructure, and providing reliability services such as frequency response, ramping and voltage support.
To keep pace with this transformation, however, NERC said electric system planners “should conduct further analysis to model a system with significant battery storage and hybrid power plants.”
And while existing NERC reliability standards adequately cover existing battery storage installations, the report recommended “NERC should conduct a thorough assessment of existing standards and guidelines to ensure that they adequately consider the projected large increase in battery energy storage systems.”
In addition, the report said that data on battery storage “lacks consistency across reporting entities, necessitating a need for better reporting mechanisms for this type of data.” NERC recommended that entities that compile battery data information enhance both their data and their reporting methods.
NERC also said that the value of battery storage as a complement to variable energy resources, such as wind and solar, should be fully understood by system planners and operators. “System planners must conduct adequate studies to determine the dynamic stability impacts of battery storage interconnection, the capability to provide capacity to meet long-term and contingency reserve margin requirements and the ability to provide essential reliability services.”
The report also recommended that NERC’s Reliability and Security Technical Committee form a task force to study the implications of battery energy storage systems and their overall effects on bulk power system reliability and resilience.
“As we continue to assess the implications created by the integration of cutting-edge technologies to the electrical grid and the increasing amount of projected battery storage in the future, industry and regulators must pay more attention to bulk power system-connected battery energy storage systems,” Coleman said.
FlexGen, Kansas Power Pool partner on energy storage project
February 1, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
February 1, 2021
Energy storage company FlexGen on Jan. 27 announced that it is partnering with the Kansas Power Pool (KPP) to design, build and operate the Solomon Energy Storage Center in Minneapolis, Kansas.
When commissioned at the end of the year, the Solomon Energy Storage Center will deliver a total of 1 MW of power.
The FlexGen battery system also includes a “black start” capability if the grid goes offline. “Black start” is often compared to jumpstarting a car, where the FlexGen battery system provides the power needed to jumpstart backup generators that put more power onto the grid, FlexGen noted.
“The Solomon Energy Storage Center is another example of KPP delivering on its mission to provide cost-effective and reliable public power and services for our community of members,” said Mark Chesney, KPP’s CEO and General Manager, in a statement. “We are pleased to work with FlexGen on this important project that will add resiliency and reduce costs.”
Kelson Energy is providing project development, market analytics and implementation support to KPP on the project.
Sized at 5.1 MWh, the Solomon Energy Storage Center will be the largest battery project in Kansas, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance data.
The battery system operates on FlexGen’s energy management software platform, FlexGen HybridOS, which FlexGen said enables the seamless export of power onto the grid when it is most needed — during times of peak demand or when weather disrupts the grid. During off-peak times the battery storage systems will charge when power prices are lower.
KPP is a member-driven public power organization which procures energy and transmission service for community-owned electric utilities across Kansas.
The American Public Power Association has developed a Public Power Energy Storage Tracker that is a resource for association members that summarizes energy storage projects undertaken by members that are currently online.
North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency seeks battery storage proposals
January 19, 2021
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 19, 2021
North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency (NCEMPA) has issued a request for proposals for ownership of a standalone battery energy storage system (BESS).
NCEMPA is seeking competitive proposals for a BESS to support NCEMPA’s demand response activities. As outlined in the RFP, NCEMPA is requesting pricing for six different BESS system configurations.
NCEMPA intends to select one of these configurations based on site-specific cost and project evaluation criteria.
Commercial operation for the BESS is scheduled for December 2022.
Proposals are due by March 11, 2021 and the RFP is available here.
NCEMPA is a joint action agency. NCEMPA’s members are 32 cities and towns located in eastern North Carolina, each of which owns and operates its municipal electric distribution system.
NCEMPA is the full requirements wholesale power supplier to its members and procures power from an investor-owned utility, pursuant to which the supplier provides native-load firm power to serve the loads of NCEMPA’s members.
The American Public Power Association offers a Public Power Energy Storage Tracker as a resource for association members that summarizes energy storage projects undertaken by members that are currently online.
DOE releases roadmap to boost U.S. energy storage manufacturing
January 7, 2021
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
January 7, 2021
The U.S. Department of Energy, in late December, released its plan to ramp up manufacturing capability so that the country’s demand for the energy storage can be filled by domestic sources by 2030.
The Energy Storage Grand Challenge Roadmap, the DOE’s first comprehensive energy storage strategy, calls for accelerating the transition of storage technologies from the lab to the marketplace, focusing on ways to competitively manufacture technologies at scale in the United States, and ensuring secure supply chains to enable domestic manufacturing.
Under the slogan “Innovate Here, Make Here, Deploy Everywhere,” the DOE’s roadmap identifies initial cost targets focused on user-centric applications with substantial growth potential.
For long duration stationary storage applications, the roadmap aims at achieving $0.05 per kilowatt hour (kWh), a 90 percent reduction from 2020 baseline costs by 2030.
Reaching that target would facilitate commercial viability for storage across a wide range of uses such as meeting load during periods of peak demand and ensuring reliability of critical services, the DOE said.
For electric vehicle battery packs, the roadmap target is $80/kWh by 2030 for a 300-mile range electric vehicle, a 44 percent reduction from the current cost of $143/kWh.
Reaching that target would lead to cost competitive electric vehicles and could benefit the production, performance, and safety of batteries for stationary applications, the DOE said.
In conjunction with the release of the Energy Storage Grand Challenge Roadmap, the DOE also released two companion reports, the 2020 Grid Energy Storage Technology Cost and Performance Assessment and the Energy Storage Market Report 2020, which contain data that informed the roadmap and provide further information for the energy stakeholder community.
“Energy storage has an important role to play in our Nation’s energy future,” Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said in a statement. “DOE worked closely with a wide range of stakeholders and partners to develop this actionable Roadmap to help bring promising energy storage technologies to market and position the United States as a global leader in energy storage solutions.”
Danville Utilities in Virginia has plans for a 10.6-MW battery storage system
December 18, 2020
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
December 18, 2020
Public power utility Danville Utilities in Virginia is moving forward with a battery energy storage project designed to shave its peak charges and save the utility and its customers money.
The Danville Utility Commission at its Nov. 30 meeting voted unanimously in favor of the 10.6-megawatt (MW), 23.3 megawatt hour (MWh) project.
The proposal is scheduled to be discussed at a work session of the Danville city council on Jan. 5. If it moves forward, the proposed project will be on the agenda for a vote on final approval at the council’s Jan. 19 meeting.
If approved, Danville Utilities is targeting Dec. 1, 2021 for operation of the battery system. It would be the public power utility’s first energy storage system.
“We are looking to take advantage of the battery storage system to reduce our exposure during generation and transmission peaks,” Jason Grey, director of Danville Utilities, said.
Not being an all-requirements utility, Danville gets is electrical power and transmission services from a variety of sources, including the PJM Interconnection. Danville, which is on the Virginia-North Carolina border, is just a couple of miles within the limits of PJM’s territory.
Danville Utilities has been looking at a battery system for well over a year but didn’t pursue one. “We kept an eye on battery prices and revisited the idea when prices came down,” Grey said.
If the project is approved, Danville Utilities would enter into a 20-year capacity agreement with Delorean Power, the Arlington, Va., company that would build, own and operate the storage system. The project is sited on an unused plot of land, about 100 feet by 70 feet, outside a utility warehouse in Danville.
Under the agreement, Danville Utilities would pay $4.25 per kilowatt per month, or about $541,000 in the first year with the costs declining slightly thereafter to reflect the 1.5% annual decline in battery capacity.
The utility would charge the batteries during off-peak hours when energy prices are lower and discharge the batteries during on-peak hours to offset or avoid transmission and energy capacity costs.
By the utility’s estimates, Danville would save $1.2 million in transmission and capacity costs in the first year of the agreement. And, over the 20-year life of the agreement, the utility would spend about $9.6 million in capacity payments to Delorean but save about $48.3 million in generation and transmission capacity charges.
Because so many transmission owners are implementing upgrades, transmission charges have been rising about 15% every year, Grey said.
By using the batteries to shave the peaks off its capacity charges, Danville Utilities expects to also be able to reduce its power cost adjustment, the sum that the utility charges customers to cover the over- or under- payment customers make through their monthly base rate. “When we can lower our power cost adjustment, it helps ratepayers,” Grey said.
The proposed battery storage project is kind of a trial, Grey said. “We hope to learn about the technology” and decide if it is a viable solution. “If it performs as anticipated, we could do another project in two or three years.”
Starbucks enters into first-ever ‘virtual’ storage PPA
December 17, 2020
by Ethan Howland
APPA News
December 17, 2020
Starbucks Corp. is entering into solar and solar-plus-storage virtual power purchase agreements to support its corporate sustainability goals.
One of the contracts is tied to a 1,200-megawatt solar project that is combined with energy storage that can deliver 2,165 megawatt-hours before needing to be recharged, according to LevelTen Energy, which runs a marketplace for renewable energy.
Under the deal with Terra-Gen, Starbucks is contracting for 24 MW of solar and 5.5 MW of battery storage from the Edwards and Sanborn project in Kern County, California. The project is expected to be fully online before 2023, according to Terra-Gen, a renewable energy developer owned by Equity Capital Partners, a private equity firm.
Other offtakers from the Edwards and Sanborn project include San Jose Clean Energy, which is buying 162 MW from Terra-Gen.
Starbucks is the first corporation to execute a virtual PPA for utility-scale storage, according to LevelTen, which helped arrange the transaction.
A virtual PPA is a financial deal under which the buyer pays a set price but doesn’t directly buy electricity from the project. Power from the project is sold into the wholesale market. If the wholesale price is higher than the price in the virtual PPA, the offtaker receives the difference. If the price is lower, the offtaker pays the facility owner to make up the difference.
“This new contract not only provides corporate buyers the economic benefits of storage, but also delivers developers a guaranteed revenue stream, enabling a more practical method for storage project financing,” LevelTen said Dec. 9 when Starbucks announced its deals.
Until now, contracting with utility-scale storage project developers was impractical for most corporations, according to LevelTen.
Stored renewable energy can be sold during the highest-priced hours of the day, often displacing coal- or natural gas-fired generation, the Seattle-based company said.
Also when organizations add storage to their wind and solar power purchase agreements, it can add value and smooth pricing variability by extending the hours of the day the energy is sold, LevelTen said.
“By providing a more practical way to contract with storage developers, this type of financial agreement opens the door to billions of dollars of investment in large-scale energy storage projects, in much the same way virtual power purchase agreements … ushered in a wave of wind and solar project development in the U.S. and beyond,” LevelTen said.
Starbucks also entered into a virtual PPA with an undisclosed solar farm in Virginia. The contract will offset half of its company run roasting and beverage production sites’ electricity use in the United States by 2022.
The coffee company said it is investing about $97 million in up to 23 new community solar projects in New York, which will supply solar energy to more than 24,000 homes, small businesses, nonprofits, churches, universities and Starbucks stores.
Starbucks aims to cut in half by 2030 the greenhouse gas emissions from its direct operations and supply chains.
Utility in deal for development of 100-MW battery storage project on NYPA-owned land
December 16, 2020
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
December 16, 2020
Solar and energy storage company 174 Power Global and investor-owned New York utility Con Edison on Dec. 16 announced the signing of a seven-year dispatch rights agreement for the development of a 100-megawatt battery storage project, the East River Energy Storage System, in Astoria, Queens.
The facility will be located on land owned by the New York Power Authority (NYPA) and leased under a long-term contract to 174 Power Global.
The battery system, which is expected to be one of the biggest in New York State, will be built and owned by 174 Power Global.
The new energy storage system represents a redevelopment of the Charles Poletti Power Plant property, repowering New York City’s grid with a clean energy resource.
“The New York Power Authority is committed to moving clean energy technologies forward and supporting initiatives that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to a healthier environment,” Gil Quinones, NYPA president and CEO, said in a statement.
“Additional energy storage development, especially in long duration storage, is key for the continued growth of renewable energy, such as hydro, wind and solar, to help us meet our peak energy demands and bring greater flexibility and resiliency to the New York State electric grid,” he said.
“This adaptive reuse of this land will help realize yet another clean energy project that moves us another step forward in meeting our aggressive climate leadership goals.”
The East River Energy Storage System is designed to balance peak electricity demands and provide grid reliability by delivering reactive power, voltage support and frequency stability to the New York region.
The energy storage system is expected to achieve commercial operation on Jan. 1, 2023.
OUC bringing together hydrogen project, nanogrid to test storage technologies
December 15, 2020
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
December 15, 2020
OUC—The Reliable One is looking forward to combining two research projects to test and demonstrate the possibilities of energy storage technologies, including hydrogen storage, that could be used to smooth out intermittent power from solar resources.
OUC has a goal of reaching zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2050, with interim goals of 50% by 2030 and 75% by 2040. There usually is abundant sunshine in Florida, but there is also a lot of cloud cover across the state that can be very sporadic and make solar output particularly erratic.
“Energy storage technologies with longer durations are important to us,” Sam Choi, manager of emerging technologies and renewables at OUC, said. That gives OUC a strong interest in alternatives to lithium ion batteries that have to date dominated the market for energy storage, he said.
OUC has two projects that are testing longer duration energy storage technologies. One is a nanogrid now in operation at the public power utility’s Gardenia operations center. This spring, OUC completed the installation of the equipment for its Gardenia nanogrid project, including doubling the existing solar panels, which float on a pond at the site, to 64 kilowatts (kW), two vanadium redox flow batteries with a total capacity of 20 kW, 80 kilowatt hours (kWh), and three electric vehicle charging stations, including one with vehicle-to-grid capability that the utility is getting ready for operation.
OUC chose flow batteries because they offer longer durations than lithium ion batteries and because, unlike li-ion batteries, the duration (energy) and capacity (power) of flow batteries can be scaled independently. “As we scale up the energy, we may not need as much power,” Choi said.
The eventual goal is to be able to “island” or separate the nanogrid from the surrounding grid in order to power the Gardenia operations center during a storm or an outage.
The other project is funded by a grant from the Department of Energy (DOE).
In August 2019, OUC and its partners won a $4 million grant under the DOE’s H2@Scale program, which explores the potential for wide-scale hydrogen production and utilization to enable resiliency in the power generation and transmission sectors.
OUC’s partners in the hydrogen grant are Giner ELX, OneH2 and the Florida Solar Energy Center at the University of Central Florida. After partner contributions are counted, the total value of the project is $9 million. Progress on the three-year grant was on hold for a few months when Giner was acquired by Plug Power over the summer. OUC, in June, received carbon fiber tanks to store hydrogen and expects to install the rest of the equipment by mid-2021
The remaining equipment includes a 510-kW electrolyzer that produces hydrgen and oxygen from water, two fuel cells, which use hydrogen to produce electricity, one stationary (600 kW), the other mobile (300-kW), a transformer and fuel cell vehicles.
The fuel cell vehicles, both light duty and larger vehicles, will be able to take advantage of the higher energy density of hydrogen compared with lithium-ion batteries for purposes of demonstrating the potential for electrification of the transportation sector, Choi said.
The electrolyzer will be sited near the pond with the solar panels so that their electrical output can be used to produce “green” hydrogen. The hydrogen project is on track to begin operation by late 2021, and the operations of the two projects, hydrogen production and storage and the nanogrid, could be combined as early as 2022.
When both projects come together, OUC will be able to produce solar power and either store it in the flow batteries or run it through the electrolyzer.
“One of the key research concepts of this project is the electrolyzer,” Choi said. When it is producing hydrogen, the electrolyzer can be ramped up or down to mitigate fluctuations in solar output, he said.
OUC will also be able to store hydrogen in tanks and, by combining tanks stored on a trailer with the mobile fuel cell, will have an emergency, backup generator that can deliver green energy where it is needed during storms and outages.
OUC is also in the process of procuring two flywheel energy storage devices. Flywheels have been most often used to store energy for short periods of time to inject bursts of energy into the grid for services such as frequency regulation. Once again, OUC is looking for a longer duration system, 8-kW flywheels with durations of up to four hours. “We are looking for solar smoothing, and flywheels have a very fast response time and no degradation,” Choi said.
OUC plans to use its Gardenia campus as a test bed that will be able to swap out and test different types of storage technologies. “We are looking to see what works and, especially with distributed resources, what potential there is for us as a utility,” Choi said.
NYPA hosts innovative storage project that uses lithium-ion battery technology
December 4, 2020
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
December 4, 2020
New York State on Dec. 2 announced the unveiling of a new energy storage project that uses an innovation in lithium-ion battery technology. The project will be located at the New York Power Authority (NYPA) headquarters in White Plains, N.Y., and funded in part by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).
The battery technology was developed by Cadenza Innovation to showcase energy storage’s role in enhancing demand management and grid flexibility and will help advance New York State’s climate and clean energy goals, NYPA said.
Cadenza Innovation was awarded a grant from NYSERDA to showcase a safe, low-cost Li-ion battery that would be demonstrated at NYPA’s White Plains offices.
Now in place following extensive development, testing and certification, the fully integrated, metal-enclosed and rack-mounted 250-kilowatt hour, 50-kilowatt battery storage unit will shav the Authority office’s peak electricity demand for up to five hours.
“The success of this project will demonstrate the safety and use of commercial energy storage systems that could enable more integration of renewable energy resources into the grid,” NYPA said.
The total cost of the research and development project will be approximately $3 million. NYSERDA provided $1 million in support with Cadenza contributing the majority of remainder. NYPA contributed approximately $50,000 in addition to hosting the site, performing extensive research, and sharing its development and engineering expertise.
Under the project, NYPA will investigate the effectiveness of the energy storage system at reducing the peak load typical of a commercial building. Once demonstrated, the system could be replicated at other businesses throughout New York State and beyond.
A video related to the project is available here.
The American Public Power Association this year launched a Public Power Energy Storage Tracker, which is a resource for association members that summarizes energy storage projects undertaken by members that are currently online.
Growth in front-of-the-meter storage drives dramatic increase in Q3 storage deployment
December 3, 2020
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
December 3, 2020
A total of 476 megawatts of storage were deployed in the third quarter of 2020, an increase of 240% over the previous high set last quarter, According to a new report from Wood Mackenzie and the U.S. Energy Storage Association (ESA).
The new record for storage ”is not an anomaly but rather a sign of things to come as front-of-the-meter (FTM) storage procurements, particularly in California, grow dramatically in number and size,” the ESA said in a Dec. 2 news release related to the report.
While the residential segment grew as well, the major growth was in the FTM market segment. Nearly 400 MW and 578 MWh were deployed in the third quarter, surpassing previous records of 133 MW and 296 MWh for this sector. More FTM storage was installed in the third quarter than was installed across all segments during any other quarter over the past 7 years.
Despite relatively low durations for systems deployed this quarter, FTM megawatt hour (MWh) deployments beat the previous record set in the third quarter of 2017 by nearly 200%.
Key findings from the report included:
- 736.6 MWh of energy storage was deployed in the United States in Q3 2020, rising 179% year over year (YOY);
- 475.9 MW of storage was brought online in the United States in Q3 2020, rising 373% YOY;
- The new quarterly deployment record, set this quarter, exceeds the record set in Q2 2020 by 240% (MW terms);
- The new quarterly FTM deployment record, set this quarter, exceeds the last FTM record set in Q4 2016 by 200% (in MWh terms);
- In Q3 2020, residential storage grew 7% QOQ (MWh terms), setting a new record with 119 MWh installed;
- In Q3 2020, the non-residential market fell by 10% QOQ (MWh terms);
- The US energy storage market is set to grow from 1,275 MW in 2020 to 7,473 MW in 2025
The report said that U.S. battery energy storage market is set to grow from 1.2 gigawatts (GW) in 2020 to nearly 7.5 GW (and 26.5 GWh) in in 2025, driven primarily by large-scale utility procurements.
Solar-paired storage will account for a large majority of these installations, and potentially the vast majority, as developers aim to capture value from the federal investment tax credit.
The American Public Power Association this year launched a Public Power Energy Storage Tracker, which is a resource for association members that summarizes energy storage projects undertaken by members that are currently online.