Leading the Deployment of Battery Storage
Batteries allow us to capture and store energy during times of low demand, when it is plentiful and inexpensive, and use it during times of high demand, when energy is in short supply and more expensive.
As more and more renewable resources such as solar and wind come online, batteries can help smooth out the fluctuations in these resources by storing the energy they generate and supplying it to the grid later when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. Energy storage can also support local distribution circuits impacted by the high penetration of renewable resources and improve power quality.
Over time, greater reliance on battery storage could offset traditional ways of meeting increased energy demand, such as building new power generation stations.
SCE Battery Energy Storage Resources
At the beginning of 2017, our utility, Southern California Edison, had nearly 400 megawatts of energy storage under contract. That’s almost double the amount that was installed in the entire nation in 2015. These resources include:
Aliso Canyon Energy Storage Procurement
In 2016, SCE entered into a number of contracts for battery energy storage to increase grid reliability and to help mitigate the impacts of the projected gas shortages from a 2015 leak and subsequent shutdown of SoCal Gas’s Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility. The following contracts represent 67 megawatts of battery energy storage.
- The installation of two 10 megawatt SCE-owned battery energy storage systems adjacent to SCE’s Mira Loma Substation in Ontario by Tesla Energy.
- The procurement of 22 megawatts of power from three non-SCE owned battery energy storage facilities in Southern California.
- Installation of 10 megawatts of battery energy storage at each of two gas-fired peaker sites—Center Substation in Norwalk and Grapeland Substation in Rancho Cucamonga—by GE. The units will be integrated with the peakers, allowing the turbines to operate in standby mode without using fuel or emitting greenhouse gases and enabling immediate response to changing energy dispatch needs.
Innovative Battery Storage Facility at SCE’s Mira Loma Substation Allows for More Renewables
SCE Unveils World’s First Low-Emission Hybrid Battery Storage, Gas Turbine Peaker System
Preferred Resources Pilot
75 megawatts of battery energy storage was included in the 125 megawatts of power purchased for the Preferred Resources Pilot, a multiyear project designed to determine whether “preferred resources”—including solar, wind, energy storage, energy efficiency and energy conservation—can be used to offset the increasing demand for electricity in Orange County.
Local Capacity Requirements Procurement
SCE purchased 260 megawatts of power from battery energy storage providers in 2014 as part of a 2200-megawatt procurement designed to meet local reliability needs for the L.A. Basin. Because energy storage was cost-competitive when compared with other preferred resources, the size of the battery energy storage component was more than five times the amount that the state required – a widely recognized game changer for the storage industry.
Our Demonstration Projects
Tehachapi Energy Storage Project
SCE experiments with new uses of battery technology to evaluate how the technology might best serve its customers. The recently concluded Tehachapi Energy Storage Project demonstration was the largest lithium-ion battery energy storage demonstration project in North America at commissioning. The facility is located near one of the largest wind generation hubs in the U.S. — the Tehachapi Wind Resource Area. It is capable of supplying 32 megawatt-hours of electricity — eight megawatts of power for four continuous hours, which is enough to power 6,000 homes. With the demonstration concluded, plans are underway to use the facility as a distribution-level resource supporting SCE’s Monolith substation near Tehachapi, CA.
Our Smart Grid Demonstration, Co-Funded by DoE
The Irvine Smart Grid demonstration project, which was conducted in a residential neighborhood on the University of California at Irvine campus, was an end-to-end study of smart grid technologies with multiple energy storage systems. A “smart grid” is an increasingly intelligent and highly automated electric power system that incorporates technological advances in power system hardware, telecommunications, computing and more. The purpose of the project was to examine how to support the increasing contribution of renewable resources to the power system, the changing demands on the system, and how to respond to real-world concerns. The demonstration was co-funded by a U.S. Department of Energy grant.
Distribution Energy Storage Integration I (DESI I)
This battery energy storage system in Orange is SCE’s first pilot system deployed to support its distribution grid. DESI I’s primary purpose is to help industrial customers with reliability, especially during the hottest months when there is an increased demand for electricity. The system is capable of supplying 2.4 megawatts of power continuously for about an hour and a half.
Looking for a Letter of Support or Commitment?
Our utility, Southern California Edison, collaborates with many organizations to support innovation in the areas of renewable sources of energy, grid optimization, and energy storage. If you are working on a project of this nature and need a letter of support or commitment for a California Energy Commission EPIC proposal, DOE or other funding source proposal, we may be able to help. Please review our instructions, then complete a request form and submit it to us at collaborations@sce.com.
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