Energy Storage News

The California Senate passed a bill that would give consumers more access to clean energy and provide the next critical piece for California to achieve its aggressive greenhouse gas and renewable energy goals. SB 700, authored by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) would increase availability of local, customer-sited energy storage for schools, farms, businesses, and homes. “In California, we are pushing aggressive renewable energy goals because we know that fighting climate change means taking action now,” said Senator Wiener. “This bill will push us down the path to 100% renewable energy. To meet our goals, we need solar, storage, and other renewable energy resources in every city and neighborhood in California, not just those that can afford it.”

ACCIONA Energía has started up the first hybrid plant for storing electricity in batteries that is part of a grid-connected wind farm in Spain. The company has also developed simulation software that will be used in the plant, for which it has been awarded the ‘Eolo Innovation’ prize for by the Spanish Wind Energy Association (AEE). These two projects make the company a pioneer in this kind of solutions, aimed at facilitating the integration of variable-generation renewables into the grid and optimizing the management of the power produced.

Power management company Eaton today announced a contract with Powin Energy to deliver a two-megawatt energy storage project in the Los Angeles Basin to support regional electric capacity and grid reliability. The project is part of the Southern California Edison 2016 Aliso Canyon Energy Storage Resources Adequacy (RA) Only solicitation, which procured fast-responding energy storage resources. Eaton is the single source provider for the energy storage inverter and balance of system equipment.

Alternative power sources are rapidly becoming a crucial part of the global power sector due to the rising acknowledgment of the environmental damage caused by fossil fuels. Despite rising public and government support, the key obstacle in the path of the alternative energy market has consistently been the fluctuations in the energy output achieved by the use of most alternative energy sources. The lack of a reliable energy storage technology that will allow for long-term storage of the energy generated from renewable energy sources has exacerbated the problems holding back the alternative energy sector and is thus likely to be a key area of research in the coming years. 

General Motors has made its largest renewable energy procurement to date, purchasing enough wind power to equal the electricity needs of 16 of its U.S. facilities. This includes business offices in Fort Worth and Austin, Texas, a major assembly and stamping complex in Arlington, Texas, and 13 parts warehouses east of the Mississippi River. GM has signed a PPA with Renewable Energy Systems to source 50 MW of wind energy to power 16 of its sites with 100% renewables. GM will source wind power through an agreement with Renewable Energy Systems, a global renewable energy and energy storage development and construction company. The company will purchase 50 MW of power produced at Cactus Flats, a 150-MW wind farm being developed by RES in Concho County, Texas. When the contract begins in the first half of 2018, 6% of GM’s global energy use will be powered by renewable energy.

Amber Kinetics and Hawaiian Electric Company have agreed to conduct a joint energy storage pilot project to test the capability of a flywheel system. Amber Kinetics will build and install an Amber Gen2 Model 25 steel flywheel system, the first commercially available four-hour duration flywheel, at Hawaiian Electric’s Campbell Industrial Park generating station on O‘ahu, where the utility will evaluate its operation. Amber’s innovative steel flywheel is a multi-hour energy storage system capable of charging and discharging electricity for multiple duty cycles per day. A flywheel is a rotating mechanical device that is used to store and release energy. The storage system can provide renewable firming and peak energy shifting, flexible capacity, and ancillary services like voltage smoothing and frequency response for reliable utility operation.

A new report from Navigant Research provides an overview of issues facing utilities as they seek to integrate energy storage, including strategies and examples from countries around the world. “Utilities have matured in their approaches, developing distinctive strategies to transform energy storage from a possible threat into a likely opportunity” While cost-effective advanced energy storage technologies are providing utilities and grid operators with new tools to improve system reliability and lower costs, these systems also present risks as relatively new technologies are integrated into existing networks.

A new microgrid control solution from Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) marks the latest of University of California, San Diego’s ongoing improvements to its campus electrical utility system. The recently installed high-speed islanding detection and load shedding system integrates SEL intelligent controls and adaptive wide-area protection technology with the campus’ onsite generation, load and energy storage. Today onsite generation at UC San Diego covers approximately 85% of the campus’ annual load and 75% of peak demand—a total of approximately 50 megawatts. The remainder is imported from the San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) grid. UC San Diego’s diverse portfolio includes a 2.8-megawatt fuel cell, 2.2-megawatt solar network, a 30-megawatt gas-turbine cogeneration plant, a 2.5-megawatt energy storage system and a chiller plant.

Greensmith, one of the largest providers of energy storage software and integration services, announced that European utility E.ON has invested in its Series C round of growth financing. The additional investment brings Greensmith’s total Series C round to $18.3 million, including a previous $5 million strategic investment from American Electric Power. Greensmith plans to use the financing to expand commercial and technology delivery operations to leverage pipeline acceleration and to advance its market-leading GEMS energy storage software platform. 

According to a recent report released by GTM Research and the Energy Storage Association, 2015 is shaping up to be the biggest year yet in the energy storage sector, with a projected deployment of 220 MW. This amount is expected to more than double on an annual basis. The energy storage market is broken into three segments: residential, non-residential and utility. California has the largest residential and non-residential markets in terms of total deployment. However, PJM Interconnection, the regional transmission organization in which Ohio is located, has the largest utility market, with more than 100 MW of storage deployed since 2013. As discussed in a previous Green Strategies article, PJM’s frequency regulation market has been a driver of the organization’s energy storage deployment.

Three significant dynamics are changing the renewable-energy market and the integration of that power into the existing grids, said DNV GL Wholesale Advisory Service, Head of Section Olof Bystrom. He elaborated on the dynamics at the recent AWEA Windpower 2015 Conference along with a survey conducted by his firm. The dynamics, actually developing trends and ideas, were distilled from a global survey of about 1,600 participants in 71 countries affiliated with the power industry.

Greensmith, a provider of grid-scale energy storage software and integration solutions, recently released a new audit service for energy storage that helps system developers evaluate the design of their storage system and improve performance. In this WindTalk podcast, Greensmith CEO John Jung discusses wind power and energy storage, and how an auditing service can help increase a project’s ROI.

NEC Energy Solutions, a subsidiary of NEC Corporation, introduced its next-generation SLD technology. It is the latest addition to the energy storage technologies available on the GSS grid energy storage platform. The SLD energy storage technology will utilize lithium-ion cells based on NEC’s lithium manganese oxide chemistry.

Operators of renewable energy sites have noted a number of different design and performance issues that have not always been properly addressed during the development of the projects. These issues have included transient over-voltages, harmonic problems, transformer saturation, power factor, reactive power, and voltage control. ABB has been a major supplier of equipment for renewable power development for many years. Over these years, the company has observed a number of incidents and problems that resulted from an incomplete understanding of the requirements for designing and properly specifying the equipment.

DNV GL will support the US government agency ARPA-E to validate the performance of ARPA-E funded grid-storage and distributed energy (micro-grid) technologies over the next four years. Together with partners — NY-BEST, Group NIRE, and CAR Technologies — DNV GL will provide a combination of third-party testing facilities, innovative testing and analysis methodologies and expert oversight to enable objective and transparent evaluation of existing ARPA-E grid-storage technologies through a program called Cycling Hardware to Analyze and Ready Grid-Scale Electricity Storage (CHARGES).

DNV GL will support the US government agency ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy) to validate the performance of ARPA-E funded grid-storage and distributed energy (micro-grid) technologies over the next four years. Many of these technologies are still at an early stage and require more data on their performance, reliability, and safety through extended use under realistic grid conditions.

American Vanadium, the North American sales agent for Gildemeister energy solutions’ CellCube vanadium flow energy storage systems, announced that the CellCube has received Underwriters Laboratories (UL) 508A certification. The UL mark is the single most accepted product accreditation in the United States and is generally a pre-requisite for permitting and insurance.

Greensmith, a leader in grid-scale energy storage technologies, announced recently it is on track to successfully integrate an additional 4 new battery types in 2014, bringing the company’s total since inception to 12 using its battery-agnostic technology platform, now in its fourth generation. With over 23MW of energy storage capacity to be deployed in 2014, Greensmith continues its rapid growth by serving an expanding list of strategic customers and channel partners looking to take full advantage of the company’s proven technologies and application expertise, including frequency regulation, grid stability/deferral, renewable integration and commercial/industrial functionality.

A123 Energy Solutions has announced the commissioning of a 2.8 MWh Grid Storage Solution for IHI Corporation, one of the largest industrial equipment manufacturers in Japan. The 1 MW, 2.8 MWh containerized Long Duration store is connected to the IHI factory located in Soma, Japan and helps the facility manage its peak energy consumption, reducing its overall demand spikes to reduce stress on the local electric grid infrastructure.

Greensmith, a leader in grid-scale energy storage technologies announced, recently it is on track to successfully integrate an additional four new battery types in 2014, bringing the company’s total since inception to 12 using its battery-agnostic technology platform, now in its fourth generation. 

One knock against renewable energy is that its variable delivery makes it more difficult for those responsible for transmission to keep the grid stable. The conventional and costly solution has always been to bring spinning reserves online to handle increasing demand. A better solution would be a large battery that would let wind farms maintain steady power levels for longer and more predictable periods, which then keep Independent Power Producers (IPP) out of the volatile spot market. Such a market is necessary because when an IPP cannot deliver the power for which it is contracted, it must purchase the power on the spot market and often at a steep premium.

By year’s end Primus Power, a startup in Hayward, Calif., could be installing the first commercial deployment of its grid-scale batteries or EnergyPods. The $56 million deal is a milestone for the three-year-old company and could be a significant step toward the goal of adding more  power storage to the grid.

A123 Energy Solutions, a provider of advanced energy storage systems for utility grid and commercial applications, says it will supply, install, and commission a 1 MW, 2.8 MWh GSS to IHI Corporation. IHI Corporation is one of the largest industrial equipment manufacturers in Japan and makes products for a diverse set of markets including aerospace, energy, social infrastructure, and heavy machinery. The GSS is currently in the process of being installed at an IHI factory located in the Tohoku region of Japan.

Policy initiatives in the U.S. are beginning to shape the market. A twin picture is emerging as a result of incentives or lack thereof. The market for ancillary services is growing in places where incentives exist and resources are being diverted from places where incentives lag. The recent shift by AES Energy Storage LLC of a 40-MW battery from Houston to the PJM region is one example.