California utility signs another four big battery contracts, taking total to 2GW

Southern California’s leading electricity supply company Southern California Edison has this week signed four long-term contracts totalling 590MW of battery energy storage projects, including three utility-scale projects.

Southern California Edison (SCE) announced on Monday that it had signed long-term contracts for four projects with some of the United States’ leading energy storage developers, such as Recurrent Energy and NextEra Energy.

Amounting to a total of 590MW, the four contracts include a small 5MW behind-the-meter project to be developed by US solar and battery developer Sunrun, and three utility-scale projects accounting for the remaining 585MW.

Importantly, the newly signed 590MW of battery storage is in addition to the 770MW worth of energy storage capacity SCE signed back in May, bringing the company’s total amount of installed and procured battery storage capacity up to approximately 2,050MW.

“Bringing more utility-scale battery storage resources online will improve the reliability of the grid and further the integration of renewable generation resources, like wind and solar, into the grid,” said William Walsh, SCE vice president of Energy Procurement & Management.

“As California transitions to 100% clean renewable energy to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change, battery storage will play a key role in harnessing the value of these cost-effective, carbon-free resources in a reliable manner.”

The small 5MW Sunrun project will serve as a demand response contract that will use energy from customer-owned energy storage. Part of this project will focus on economically impacted communities that suffer most from the effects of air pollution, which will provide 5% of the capacity for this project.

A 200MW contract was signed with Recurrent Energy for its Crimson storage project, which appears to be a 350MW solar project with a 350MW energy storage component.

The 60MW Eldorado Valley project being developed by 174 Power Global and Hanwha Group was also contracted. Both Crimson and Eldorado Valley are expected to be online in early August 2022.

NextEra Energy’s 325MW Desert Peak was the fourth project signed, and along with Sunrun’s behind-the-meter project is expected to be online by early August 2023.

All four projects were awarded as part of a competitive process launched by SCE in late-2019 and are part of SCE’s projected 30GW of utility-scale storage that must be added to the California grid by 2045. SCE projects a further 10GW of storage from distributed energy resources will also be needed.

In the shorter term, the projects also serve to deliver the remainder of storage capacity required by the California Public Utilities Commission’s combined 3.3GW of resources by 2023 intended to help manage California’s grid reliability.

The four new projects will come online one and two years after SCE is looking to switch on the seven battery storage projects it had signed back in May, and which the company hopes will be turned on by August 2021.

The largest battery storage project contracted in May measured in at 230MW/920MWh, while the smallest was 50MW, and most will be co-located with adjacent solar power plants so that they will be storing renewable electricity.

The 770MW procurement “tops the entire 2019 US storage market by more than 200 megawatts” according to Daniel Finn-Foley, head of energy storage for Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables, speaking in May. “The storage market is approaching a deployment acceleration over the next two years that will be unprecedented in recent U.S. electricity history,” Finn-Foley said.

“These new emissions-free projects will help us ensure the reliability of the grid for our customers and integrate an ever-increasing amount of clean renewable energy over the next decade,” said William Walsh in May.

“Signing these contracts aligns with SCE’s Pathway 2045, continues our support of California’s goal to green the state and also encourages clean energy projects of all types, creating jobs and strengthening our economy.”

Note: SoCal did not release the storage duration of the newly contracted batteries, although some local reports suggested they could be four hours.

Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.

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