Southern California Edison (SCE) commissioned the largest lithium-ion battery storage system in North America on 24 September at its Monolith substation in Tehachapi, California.
The utility plans on running the 8MW/32MWh facility for the next two year to test the performance of the batteries in real-world conditions. It will also test how to automate and integrate the operations of the storage facility and its power onto the grid.
The project is located in the Tehachapi wind resource area, which should have 4.5GW in installed wind capacity by 2016.
The system cost $50m, with the costs split by SCE and the US Energy Department.
California’s investor-owned utilities are facing mandates from the Public Utilities Commission to add 1,325MW of energy storage by 2024. The requirement for energy storage is being driven by the state’s need to integrate increasing amounts of variable renewable generation under the state’s climate policies.
The 32MWh of battery capacity represents 604 racks that collectively hold more than 10,000 battery modules supplied LG Chem.
