A new 1 MW / 1 MWh battery is expected to come online in Consolidated Edison’s territory next month, the first of several the New York City utility will roll out as part of a demonstration project that challenges the definition of energy innovation: sometimes it’s a new technology, other times it’s a real estate deal.

The project takes a new approach to developing energy storage for peak shaving and other grid benefits: rather than search for customers with the perfect load to also benefit and co-own the asset, ConEd tasked distributed generation developer GI Energy with finding under-utilized real estate to lease.

The utility gave GI a list of locations on its grid where batteries could provide a benefit, and the company took care of project development and customer acquisition.

“The conventional behind-the-meter (BTM) model is basically arbitraging utility tariffs,” GI Energy Director of Analytics James Robinson told Utility Dive. “It works but it has some limitations.”

The arrangement with GI utilizes a new type of dispatch and ownership arrangement the company says can help knock down barriers to locating batteries in some areas, particularly where real estate is expensive.

A more traditional battery solution might leverage customer-owned BTM storage assets, but that can be limiting — the utility must find the right customer in the right location with the right peak demand, in order for project economics to work out. And even then, the BTM storage assets tend to be smaller.

A new approach
ConEd’s Commercial Battery Storage (CBS) project takes a new approach, utilizing a third-party to locate and lease appropriate real estate for batteries — with the utility holding primary dispatch rights.

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Statkraft has announced a new partnership with redT to provide a fully financed solar and storage solution with 100% renewable energy for businesses in the UK.

Claimed to be the first offering of its kind in the country, the solution is expected to enable businesses to save up to 20% on their bills over the next 25 years.

Statkraft will provide a long term corporate power purchase agreement (PPA) for the solar and battery storage technology, alongside a 100% renewable supply deal from its subsidiary, Bryt Energy, for the remaining power required from the grid.

Solar panels will be combined with redT flow machines without the need for any upfront costs, while Statkraft will also seek to incorporate them into its virtual power plant (VPP) and offer flexibility optimisation services.

The initial phase of the partnership is targeting up to 10MW of solar and 6MWh of energy storage, scaling over three years to 100MW of solar and 60MWh of storage.

Andy Cooper, Head of UK Downstream for Statkraft said: “We are excited to be working with redT energy to provide an attractive combination of renewable energy and long duration energy storage for our customers – we believe our funded solution really enables customers to take advantage of more zero carbon renewable energy, matching it to when it is needed most.

“The partnership with redT enables Statkraft and Bryt Energy to offer additional options that will benefit customers, incorporating storage, renewable energy solutions, advanced asset optimisation and trading within a VPP.”

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The largest power distribution company in Switzerland has installed the country’s largest energy storage system.

Elektrizitätswerke des Kantons Zürich (EKZ) now owns and operates 18MW/7.5MWh grid storage solution system installed by NEC Energy Solutions.

The energy storage system is located at an existing substation in Volketswil, near Zurich and will be used for primary frequency reserve and ancillary services.

The energy storage system will ensure the reliability of the grid during times when energy demand is high through the storage of electricity when the grid is stable and supply during peak periods.

The system will provide energy equivalent of the daily electricity consumption of 600 average four-person households and is expected to have a payback of 5-7 years.

Marina González Vayá, energy storage specialist at EKZ, said: “Battery storage is a vital part of future energy supply.

“The now-completed storage system contributes to the stability of continental Europe’s power grid.”

The project is part of efforts by EKZ to modernise its grid network and enable the integration of more renewable energy resources.

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NEC Energy Solutions has installed the largest battery system in Switzerland.

The 18MW/7.5MWh installation is owned and operated by the country’s largest power distribution firm Elektrizitätswerke des Kantons Zürich (EKZ) and being used for primary frequency reserve.

NEC has installed its Grid Storage Solution, which it says could also provide other ancillary services as EKZ sees fit.

“Battery storage is a vital part of future energy supply,” said Marina González Vayá, storage specialist at EKZ. “The now-completed storage system contributes to the stability of continental Europe’s power grid.”

The new storage system is sited next to an existing substation in Volketswil east of Zürich. NEC expects a payback period of 5-7 years.

“We are excited to deliver the largest energy storage project in Switzerland,” said Steve Fludder, CEO of NEC Energy Solutions. “As countries modernize their power grids across the world, NEC’s storage solutions enable the transformation to a cleaner, more renewable and more digital electric power system of the future. We value the confidence and trust which EKZ has placed in us,” he added.

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If Hawaii is to meet its stated objective of reaching 100 percent renewable energy in just 26 years, milestones must be met en route. One marker was reached in January, when the world’s largest solar-plus-storage peaker plant came online in Lawa’i, Kauai in the 50th state.

The plant, formally termed the Lawa’i Solar and Energy Storage Project, is owned and operated by Boulder, Colo.-based AES Distributed Energy. AES partnered with Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, a member-owned cooperative serving 33,000 customer accounts on the island of Kauai, in the venture.

The facility consists of a 28-megawatt solar photovoltaic facility and a 100 megawatt-hour, five-hour duration energy storage system. The new peaker will provide approximately 11 percent of Kauai’s power, bringing the portion of the island’s energy supplied by renewable sources to more than 50 percent.

“We believe this project is the largest solar-plus-storage facility in the world at the present time,” said David Bissell, KIUC’s president & CEO. When operating at full capacity and coupled with the Tesla solar-plus-storage facility, it will allow KIUC to meet 40 percent of its evening peak needs with solar energy, he added.

According to AES, the Lawa’i project will eliminate the use of 3.7 million gallons of diesel fuel each year, and at the same time support several vital power distribution scenarios. It allows for solar generation to supply the grid while charging the battery system. It dispatches power stored in the battery system to the grid during peak demand periods. And it can dispatch solar and battery power simultaneously to respond to demand spikes, in addition to supporting the grid by providing ancillary services.

KIUC’s renewable portfolio has grown from eight percent in 2010 to more than 50 percent. Over that period, there has been a corresponding 15 million gallon annual reduction in reliance on fossil fuel.

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