US utility San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) is asking regulators to give the green light to contracts it has signed for five new local lithium-ion battery storage facilities with a combined total of 83.5MW.
If approved by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), two of the five four-hour energy storage facilities will be owned and operated by SDG&E.
SDG&E said the first would be a 40MW facility to be built by AES Energy Storage, which commissioned what is currently the world’s largest system at Escondido. The second 30MW facility will be built in Miramar by Renewable Energy Systems America Inc.
The other storage projects will be owned by third parties and built in Escondido, Poway and San Juan Capistrano, SDG&E said.
All five of the battery projects, which are expected to come on line between December 2019 and late 2021, “can store supplies of solar, wind and other traditional sources and release it when energy is in high demand”, SDG&E said. These facilities “would be like having batteries from more than 5,500 all-electric, long-range vehicles at the ready”.
Emily Shults, SDG&E’s vice president of energy procurement, said the projects were in line with targets set by the CPUC for investor-owned utilities to procure large amounts of energy storage by 2020 – including 165MW by SDG&E.
“By building these projects, SDG&E will remain at the forefront of helping the state achieve its bold clean-energy and carbon-emission targets,” Shults said.
