World's Biggest Battery Proposed in California
29 Junho 2018 - 6:41PM
Dow Jones News
By Erin Ailworth
A California utility is seeking permission to have a company
build the world's largest battery, joining a growing list of power
companies investing in storing electricity.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co., part of PG&E Corp., detailed
plans for four storage projects totaling nearly 570 megawatts in a
Friday filing to regulators, including a 300-megawatt battery
installation at a natural-gas-fired power plant owned by Vistra
Energy Corp.
That battery, the largest installation of its kind, would be
owned by Vistra, and it would be capable of running for four hours
while putting out the same amount of power as a small natural gas
plant.
In addition, the utility is seeking approval for a 182.5
megawatt system built by Tesla Inc. that would be owned by
PG&E, as well two smaller projects. The California Public
Utilities Commission must approve the storage projects.
Cost estimates for all of the projects were not immediately
available.
"Recent decreases in battery prices are enabling energy storage
to become a competitive alternative to traditional solutions," said
Roy Kuga, vice president of grid integration and innovation at
PG&E.
A 100-megawatt battery installation built by Tesla in Australia
is currently the world's largest in operation.
More battery projects are being built or are under consideration
in the U.S., as utilities look for ways to store energy from wind
and solar farms or replace plants that only run during peak
hours.
In Arizona, NextEra Energy Inc. is developing a 30-megawatt
battery to go with a 100-megawatt solar array for Tucson Electric
Power. Arizona Public Service Co. on Friday issued a request for
proposals to equip existing solar plants with batteries -- part of
a larger plan to add up to 500 megawatts of storage over the next
15 years.
Fluence Energy LLC is building a 100-megawatt installation in
Long Beach, Calif., that could power about 60,000 homes in the
southern part of the state for up to four hours.
The storage projects proposed by PG&E come several months
after the California Public Utilities Commission directed Pacific
Gas & Electric Co., the state's largest investor-owned utility,
to solicit bids for renewable energy resources, including battery
storage, to replace three costly fossil fuel plants.
That directive has helped put pressure on natural-gas-fired
power plants in California, which are finding it harder to compete
as the state looks to satisfy its aggressive clean energy goals and
as the cost of renewable resources continues to decline.
PG&E says it expects the 182.5-megawatt system to come
online by the end of 2020, pending the commission's approval. The
company did not estimate the full cost of the project but predicts
it will look to request about $41.2 million from ratepayers for the
project in the first year it is operational.
The 300-megawatt battery project would be built at Vistra's Moss
Landing power plant, which has produced electricity since 1950. The
battery would hook up to the grid via existing connections at the
site, where two older generating units were retired at the end of
2016.
Curt Morgan, chief executive of Vistra, said he sees more
battery system investments in his company's future, especially
wherever those installations can take advantage of power
infrastructure already in place.
"I don't think it's any secret that California over time is
trying to move away from fossil fuel power plants, so batteries are
kind of a natural to provide power at the peak periods," he
said.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 29, 2018 17:26 ET (21:26 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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