Sharp Electronics Corp.’s Energy Systems and Services Group and CivicSolar, are offering Sharp’s SmartStorage energy storage system through its distribution network of solar PV installers.

Sharp and CivicSolar’s first project will be with technology developer and systems integrator Forecast Energy.

The project features a 120 kW/160 kWh SmartStorage system plus a 313.5 kW solar power system and Forecast Energy’s proprietary forecasting platform that has been installed at Channel Lumber, one of the largest lumber companies in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Sharp’s energy storage solution paired with solar PV systems can reduce energy usage for commercial properties. Sharp’s SmartStorage system is designed to pull power from the SmartStorage batteries rather than from the utility at the times of highest demand, which are the most expensive rates, and is particularly suited for properties in parts of California where commercial utility customers are paying up to 50 percent of their energy bills toward demand charges. Channel Lumber paid $172,385 in demand charges alone over a one year period.

A detailed analysis of Channel Lumber’s energy usage profile estimates that the solar plus SmartStorage system will bring $160,466 in energy and demand savings annually — an estimated 62 percent reduction in Channel Lumber’s total bill. Forecast Energy selected Sharp’s SmartStorage system and was the integrator and installer for the entire project.

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Younicos announced Monday it will deliver a megawatt-scale battery storagesystem to Austin Energy in Texas.

The project is part of a U.S. Department of Energy-funded initiative known as the Sustainable and Holistic Integration of Energy Storage and Solar Photovoltaic (SHINES) project. Younicos will collaborate with the project’s prime contractor, Doosan GridTech, to install the 1.75 MW / 3.2 MWh system using the company’s Y.Cube systems.

“We’re keeping Austin weird – and energized,” said Stephen L. Prince, CEO of Younicos. “The SHINES project is the perfect showcase for an alternative, distributed energy system with resources like energy storage providing resiliency and security. Our Y.Cube is ideal for this application – offering the best in battery storage, intelligent control, system performance and safety in a compact form factor. We’re very pleased to partner with Austin Energy and Doosan GridTech on this innovative project.”

Younicos’s Y.Q software platform will manage the system, communicating with the Doosan GridTech Intelligent Controller using the Modular Energy Storage Architecture (MESA) open standard. The seven Y.Cubes and Y.Converters represent the company’s largest Y.Cube deployment in the U.S. to date.

Daejin Choi, CEO of Doosan GridTech commented, “We are pleased to be working with Younicos on this breakthrough project. The MESA open standard provides the software architecture that allows us each to bring our innovation to Austin Energy without a lot of custom engineering to fit the pieces together. Austin preserves choice in their system moving forward and we each get to focus on our core competencies.”

The Y.Cube systems will provide storage capabilities as part of a Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) that will maintain grid reliability while also enabling energy loads to be delivered at the lowest possible cost with high penetration levels of distributed PV generation. The platform, called DG-DERO, also provided by Doosan GridTech, will use multiple advanced control methodologies that will be demonstrated and evaluated using a fleet of diverse DER assets deployed at various locations among Austin Energy’s customers.

The battery system will be located in a neighborhood in East Austin, coexisting near both residential and commercial buildings. The Y.Cube, which has been optimized for use in commercial and industrial battery storage applications, is a plug-and-play system that also contains multiple thermal management subsystems for maximum safety.

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Eos Energy Storage added two new members to the company’s executive team Wednesday. Jeff Wiener, former director of global sales— energy storage at General Electric, joins as the company’s senior vice president of global sales, and Chris Gerlach, former vice president of finance at Solar Reserve, joins as the company’s chief financial officer.

“We’re incredibly excited to add these industry veterans to the team,” says Jim Hughes, Eos chairman of the board and former First Solar CEO. “Their combined experience strengthens capabilities around product deployment, bankability and financing, and will reinforce Eos’ position as the go-to supplier for safe, cost-effective energy storage.”

As senior vice president of global sales, Wiener will build and scale Eos’ brand globally, finding new opportunities and applications for the Eos Aurora battery. Wiener spent 36 years in GE’s power segment, playing roles in wind, thermal and hydro services, and most recently directed sales for the company’s energy storage division.

 “I watched Eos for a number of years as they brought the Aurora product to market, constantly meeting key business milestones: It is now ready to go mainstream,” Wiener said. “In addition to its industry leading cost position, I believe the Eos Aurora has significant advantages over other technologies in terms of full depth of discharge operation, modular design, installation simplicity and system safety. With industry leaders like Jim Hughes and CEO Michael Oster, I have great trust and belief in the leadership team, and I’m glad to be a part of it.  I’m delighted to be working with Chris.”

Gerlach has a diverse background in finance and banking in the renewable energy sector as well as in the oil and gas, conventional power and telecommunications industries. In his previous role at Solar Reserve, Gerlach was instrumental in financing the first commercial-scale power tower with storage which entered into commercial operation in late 2015. The project involved 1,100 MWh of storage capacity.

“I was drawn to the versatility of Eos’ revolutionary battery product, which can be brought to bear on a vast array of applications, from peak shaving and reliability-enhancing backup power to renewables integration and microgrids,” Gerlach said. “The cost effectiveness of Eos’ proprietary technology creates an enormous opportunity to disrupt the market and lead lithium ion from a price, safety and longevity perspective. With commercial deployments now going into the field, Eos is setting a new standard in the industry.”

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Snohomish County PUD this week dedicated its second energy storage system, recently installed at a substation in Everett, Washington.

The system is the PUD’s largest containerized vanadium flow battery system by capacity. The batteries and control systems are housed in 20 shipping containers, each 20 feet in length, packed with tanks of a liquid electrolyte solution.

The PUD’s battery storage systems aim to transform the marketplace and how utilities manage grid operations. They also are designed to improve reliability and the integration of renewable energy resources, which are rapidly growing in the Pacific Northwest.

The PUD was joined at the dedication by Washington Governor Jay Inlsee and representatives from partnering organizations, including UniEnergy Technologies, which manufactured the battery, Doosan GridTech and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The energy storage system was made possible in part with a $7.3 million investment from the Washington State Clean Energy Fund.

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SDG&E is unveiling a new vanadium redox flow battery storage pilot project in coordination with Sumitomo Electric, which stemmed from a partnership between Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Development Organization and the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development.

During the four-year demonstration project, SDG&E will be researching if flow battery technology can economically enhance the delivery of reliable energy to customers, integrate growing amounts of renewable energy and increase the flexibility in the way the company manages the power grid.

“SDG&E is continuously at the forefront of delivering clean energy solutions and championing innovative technologies to assess the long-term benefits for our customers,” said Caroline Winn, SDG&E’s chief operating officer. “This pilot will advance our understanding of how this flow battery technology can help us increase the reliable delivery of clean energy to our customers and align with state and local carbon emission reduction goals.”

The vanadium redox flow battery storage facility will provide 2 MW of energy, enough to power the energy equivalent of about 1,000 homes for up to four hours. Like other battery storage systems, the battery will act like a sponge to soak up renewable energy harnessed from the sun and release it when resources are in high demand.

Flow battery systems have an expected life-span of more than 20 years, and could have less degradation over time from repeated charging cycles than other technologies. SDG&E will be testing voltage frequency, power outage support and shifting energy demand.

“We are delighted to see our first flow battery system operating in the U.S. through the multiple-use operation of the battery system in SDG&E’s distribution network, we would like to prove its economic value and potential use on the electric grids,” said Junji Itoh, managing director of Sumitomo Electric.

“California continues to lead the nation when it comes to growing the economy and decreasing emissions,” said Sid Voorakkara, Deputy Director for External Affairs at the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. “GO-Biz is proud to partner with NEDO to bring this demonstration project to life and increase opportunities for economic growth powered by renewable energy.”

SDG&E has been a leader in bringing energy storage options into the region with the recent unveiling of the world’s largest lithium ion battery storage facility in Escondido and a smaller facility in El Cajon. To date, SDG&E has about 100 MW of energy storage projects completed or contracted.

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ComEd launched a pilot project to test the use of battery energy storagetechnology to reduce the impact of power outages in residential areas where customers experience service interruptions, particularly in extreme weather events.

ComEd’s Community Energy Storage pilot is being conducted in Beecher, Ill., about 40 miles south of Chicago. The pilot will focus on improving power reliability for customers experiencing multiple interruptions.

One of the first utilities in the nation to install CES, ComEd will also evaluate the potential of this technology to serve as a proactive tool to drive continuous improvement in service reliability.

“Through grid modernization and smart grid investments, our reliability performance has been best on record for five years running, and we’re committed to continuous improvement,” said Michelle Blaise, senior vice president, Technical Services, ComEd. “We want all ComEd customers to experience great reliability and that’s why we’re innovating and piloting emerging technologies such as energy storage to bring new value to communities and help improve service for our customers. We’re excited about the potential that battery storage offers to minimize the impact of a power outage while we continue to make progress in preventing them.”

ComEd is using the PureWave Community Energy Storage system from Chicago-based S&C Electric Co. Featuring a 25kWh lithium-ion battery, the CES unit was installed near the existing ComEd equipment that provides power to the homes of Beecher customers selected for the pilot. In the event of a power outage, the energy storage system will automatically restore power and has enough capacity to supply power to a group of customers for the duration of most typical outages. The momentary power outage when the battery storage takes over is barely perceptible while crews take the precautions needed to ensure a safe and seamless return-to-normal.

Blaise said that additional CES pilots are planned for the ComEd service territory. ComEd is also exploring the potential of energy storage to support the integration of renewable energy sources. The company received a $4 million grant from the Department of Energy to develop and test a system that integrates solar and battery storage with a microgrid, which is a small energy grid that can power a local, defined area in times of emergency.

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Con Edison has filed a project that will bring battery storage technology to New York City neighborhoods to help keep service reliable during the hot summer months.

By the summer of 2018, the company will deploy batteries capable of sending 1 MW of power for four hours into the grid to serve homes and businesses. Con Edison will determine where to deploy the batteries each summer based on the needs of its electrical networks.

The project, called “Storage on Demand,” is the second battery demonstration project Con Edison has filed in 2017. The company believes both projects will produce insights leading to more widespread adoption of large-scale battery storage to benefit electrical delivery systems and customers. The projects support the state’s Reforming the Energy Vision initiative.

“Battery storage technology is advancing quickly and can provide us with another tool to keep our service reliable on the days our customers need it the most,” said Matthew Ketschke, Con Edison’s vice president, Distributed Resource Integration. “Battery storage can also help us defer making upgrades to our infrastructure, saving our customers money.”

Con Edison has formed a partnership with NRG Energy, which owns almost 50,000 megawatts of generation capacity across the United States, to develop and build the units at NRG’s generating station in Astoria, Queens. Storage on Demand will consist of two mobile battery trailers and one mobile electrical switchgear trailer.

When Con Edison and its customers do not need the batteries, the units will be stored at the generating station and the partners will sell peak-shaving, contingency support and other services into the New York Independent System Operator wholesale market.

While Con Edison plans on deploying the units during the summer, the batteries will also be available at other times of the year when an electrical network needs short-term support.

In its other storage demonstration project, filed in January, Con Edison will work with microgrid developer GI Energy to place “front-of-the-meter,” 1 megawatt/1 megawatt hour batteries at the properties of four customers. Con Edison will make quarterly lease payments to those customers.

The company would charge the batteries during off-peak times and discharge them during peak times to support Con Edison’s system or in wholesale markets.

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Meeting energy demands of the future means exploring the viability of various technologies today. In its latest research project, Louisville Gas and Electric Co. and Kentucky Utilities Co. is launching a new Energy Storage Research and Demonstration Site at its E.W. Brown Generating Station near Harrodsburg in Mercer County.

The project, which was developed in collaboration with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), became operational in January 2017 and will allow the utilities to develop, test, and evaluate the potential benefits of utility-scale battery technologies, and investigate operating needs and associated costs.

Additionally, researchers will be able to use the site to advance control technologies, increase value gained from storage, and determine solutions to integration challenges for energy storage on the electric grid.

The site includes three testing bays for energy storage technologies, each able to house up to one megawatt of storage, resulting in a total hosting capacity of up to three megawatts of energy storage. The first energy storage system installed on the site consists of a one megawatt lithium-ion battery system, a one megawatt smart power inverter and an advanced control system. This storage system was custom-engineered for the site and can support a number of advanced control functions and use cases during testing.

“The Energy Storage Research and Demonstration Site is unique among other sites in the utility industry because it provides us a testbed for evaluating multiple utility-scale energy storage technologies at the same time,” said Dr. David Link, manager of Research and Development for LG&E and KU.

Testing multiple storage technologies at one time will allow researchers to assess how the individual systems operate and any potential grid integration challenges as the systems work together, simulating these technologies operating at the same time on the electric grid.

The site is also designed to be collaborative, creating a “virtual lab” for use by other utilities working with EPRI to address potential gaps associated with utility-scale energy storage, while also providing a platform to share knowledge gained across the utility industry.

“Energy storage is a viable way for grid operators to enhance resiliency, manage costs, and optimally incorporate distributed energy resources on an integrated grid,” said Mark McGranaghan, vice president of Distribution and Energy Utilization at EPRI. “The LG&E and KU testbed will provide valuable data on the performance of energy storage that will help utilities across the country make better decisions about their own systems as well as provide information to other stakeholders.”

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SDG&E is showcasing its largest lithium-ion battery energy storage facility in partnership with AES Energy Storage, which will enhance regional energy reliability while maximizing renewable energy use.

The 30 MW energy storage facility is capable of storing up to 120 MW hours of energy, the energy equivalent of serving 20,000 customers for four hours.

Last year, the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) directed Southern California investor-owned electric utilities to fast-track additional energy storage options to enhance regional energy reliability.

In response, SDG&E expedited ongoing negotiations and contracted with AES Energy Storage to build two projects for a total of 37.5 MW of lithium ion battery energy storage. In addition to the 30 MW facility built in Escondido, Calif., a smaller 7.5 MW installation was built in El Cajon.

“San Diego County is a community of leadership and innovation, so it is only fitting that this community should receive the benefit of this unique project,” said Scott Drury, SDG&E’s president. “For more than a decade, SDG&E has been at the forefront to deliver results consistent with state and local clean energy and carbon emission goals. These projects affirm our commitment to deliver clean energy to customers and to provide a more reliable power supply to our electric grid when it is most needed.”

The 400,000 batteries, similar to those in electric vehicles, were installed in nearly 20,000 modules and placed in 24 containers. The batteries will act like a sponge, soaking up and storing energy when it is abundant – when the sun is shining, the wind is blowing and energy use is low – and releasing it when energy resources are in high demand. This will provide reliable energy when customers need it most, and maximize the use of renewable resources such as solar and wind.

“SDG&E is a leader in providing clean, reliable power to their customers, and we’re honored that they chose Advancion energy storage to serve their needs,” said John Zahurancik, AES Energy Storage president. “These two projects, including the world’s largest advanced energy storage site, are the latest proof of energy storage’s capacity to scale up and solve our most pressing grid issues in a short period.”

Energy storage is playing a key role in SDG&E’s commitment to delivering clean, safe and reliable energy. By 2030, the company expects to develop or interconnect more than 330 MWs of energy storage on the system. These projects can help support the delivery of more renewables to customers and help strengthen SDG&E’s record as the most reliable utility in the West.

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AES Distributed Energy, a unit of AES Corp., and Kauaʻi Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) announced Jan. 10 the execution of a power purchase agreement for a plant that will provide solar energy together with the benefits of battery-based energy storage for optimal balancing of generation with peak demand.

The project consists of 28 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) and a 20 MW five-hour duration energy storage system. The system will be located on former sugar cane land between Lāwaʻi and Kōloa on Kauaʻi’s south shore. It will be the largest solar-plus-utility-scale-battery system in the state of Hawaii.

“We are honored that KIUC has selected AES to help meet their peak demand with a flexible and reliable renewable energy solution,” said Woody Rubin, president of AES Distributed Energy. “We are excited to be able to leverage AES’ energy storage platform, and 20 plus-year history in Hawai’i to help KIUC modernize the grid and provide additional value to its customers.”

“Energy from the project will be priced at 11 cents per kWh and will provide 11 percent of Kauaʻi’s electric generation, increasing KIUC’s renewable sourced generation to well over 50 percent,” said KIUC president and CEO David Bissell. “The project delivers power to the island’s electrical grid at significantly less than the current cost of oil-fired power and should help stabilize and even reduce electric rates to KIUC’s members. It is remarkable that we are able to obtain fixed pricing for dispatchable solar-based renewable energy, backed by a significant battery system, at about half the cost of what a basic direct to grid solar project cost a few years ago.”

Bissell estimates that the project will reduce KIUC’s fossil fuel usage by over 3.7 million gallons yearly. AES DE will be the long-term owner and operator of the project. The project is pending state and local regulatory approvals. If approved, it is expected to come on-line by late 2018.

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