Investment and development firm LS Power is set to complete the largest battery energy storage project in the world— the 250MW Gateway Energy Storage project in California, US.
The Gateway project, located in the East Otay Mesa community in San Diego County, is due to reach 250MW by the end of the month.
Gateway Energy Storage, which is at 230MW at the moment, is used for grid reliability services.
LS Power’s other projects in development or construction in California and New York include: Diablo Energy Storage (200MW) in Pittsburg, California; LeConte Energy Storage (125MW) in Calexico, California; and Ravenswood Energy Storage (316MW) in Queens, New York.
LS Power’s California-based energy projects will support the state in its clean energy and storage goals.
In the past couple of weeks, California has suffered its first rolling black-outs related to supply since 2001, as state regulators warn of more outages. The state has endured planned blackouts in recent years as a wildfire prevention measure.
The storage system was connected to the California Independent System Operator’s (ISO) grid in June— with the 62.5MW lithium-ion system supplying more than a quarter of the area’s battery capacity.
The initial phase of LS Power Group’s Gateway Energy Storage Project in San Diego County signals an era of rapid battery growth for ISO through 2023 as the firm aims toward the state’s procurement targets.
Earlier this month, US-based Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and Tesla began construction of the world’s biggest utility-owned lithium-ion ESS.
The 182.5MW/730MWh system at PG&E’s electric substation in Moss Landing, California, will be designed, constructed, and maintained by PG&E and Tesla, and will be owned and operated by the US utility.