Californian utility San Diego Gas & Electric has unveiled a 30MW lithium-ion battery energy storage facility in partnership with AES Energy Storage.
The 129MW/h battery energy storage system will store renewable energy for use in peak shifting and grid frequency applications.
The ESS’s 400,000 cells are installed in nearly 20,000 modules and placed in 24 containers.
The adoption of batteries for storage in the US state follows a gas leak that left thousands of homes without power in 2015.
This prompted the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) to direct Southern California utilities to fast-track energy storage systems to enhance the reliability of the state’s energy.
In turn SDG&E has joined with AES Energy Storage to build two projects, the other a 7.5MW installation in El Cajon.
Scott Drury, SDG&E’s president said: “These projects affirm our commitment to deliver clean energy to customers and to provide a more reliable power supply to our electric grid when it is most needed.”
John Zahurancik, AES Energy Storage president, said: “These two projects are the latest proof of energy storage’s capacity to scale up and solve our most pressing grid issues in a short period.”
By 2030 SDG&E expects to develop or interconnect more than 330MWs of energy storage on grid systems.
Last month BBB reported how battery ESSs were being adopted by utility companies in California because of their rapid speed of deployment and swift demand functionality.
That combined 42MWs of storage included lithium-ion batteries from Tesla.
