Storage anywhere

Is that cycle worth it?

Energy Storage North America (ESNA), the most influential gathering of policy, technology and market leaders in energy storage, applauds Governor Jerry Brown and the California State Legislature for passing landmark Senate Bill (SB) 100, which sets the largest-scale zero-emission electricity targets ever established for a U.S. state.

From November 6-8 in Pasadena, California, ESNA sponsors, exhibitors, speakers and attendees will gather to demonstrate that the energy storage industry is ready with technology and deployment solutions to successfully support a zero-emission grid. Since 2010, California has procured more than 1,500 MW of new energy storage capacity; North American energy users and utilities have collectively procured over 2 GW of advanced energy storage projects to date.

“Energy Storage is critical to supporting the increasing penetration of renewables throughout North America and the globe, and our community is ready to deliver,” said Janice Lin, Co-founder and Chair of ESNA. “ESNA brings together the key decision makers who are demonstrating the game-changing role energy storage can play to achieve grid transformation. Storage has proven its ability to integrate intermittent renewable energy and optimize existing assets for a cleaner, more affordable and reliable grid.”

California investor-owned utilities are already demonstrating their leadership toward achieving SB 100 goals. For example, last month Southern California Edison (SCE) submitted its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) that highlighted the significant role of energy storage in achieving the state’s electricity sector greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction goals by 2030. SCE models showed that in order to reduce its grid-based GHG emissions to 28 million metric tons by 2030, California load-serving entities would need to procure an additional 9,604 MW of energy storage.

Several of the proposals approved by CAISO’s board on Wednesday were part of the third and final phase of the Energy Storage and Distributed Energy Resources (ESDER) initiative that stakeholders launched to foster greater participation of those resources in the wholesale market.

The proposals remove one more set of barriers and would allow greater participation of DERs and energy storage in the wholesale market, CAISO spokesman Steven Greenlee told Utility Dive.

The proposal approved for energy storage would allow BTM batteries to more easily consume energy during oversupply conditions and return that energy to the system during times of need.

BTM batteries can already participate in CAISO’s day-ahead and real time markets, but the proposed change to ISO rules would allow two resource identifications for one storage unit, depending on whether it is charging or discharging energy.

The rule change would create a new product, the proxy demand resource-load shift resource (PDR-LSR) that would help avoid confusion when a storage unit receives conflicting dispatch signals. In addition, it would allow a storage device to enter separate bids for charging and discharging.

That would help “incentivize behind-the-meter storage operators to operate their unit in alignment with grid needs,” Greenlee said. For example, he said, it would provide a signal for battery operators not to send energy to the grid when it is not needed or to charge when the energy is needed. The proposal would require direct metering of BTM batteries.

There is a separate proceeding underway at CAISO that is studying how transmission-connected storage assets can participate in the ISO’s energy and ancillary services markets.

Masdar, Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, has partnered with the Public Utilities Corporation (PUC) of the Seychelles to build a 5MW solar PV plant with 5MW / 3.3MWh of battery storage.

The project is being financed with a AED31 million (US$8.44 million) loan from the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD), as well as equity from PUC.

The 5MW Ile de Romainville Solar Park will be located on the same site as the existing 6MW Port Victoria Wind Farm, which was also built by Masdar in 2013 and which also received ADFD financing of AED103 million. Both the wind and solar-plus-storage projects will also be integrated with PUC’s existing power station.

The battery will then be able to provide services for grid stability and safe operation of PUC’s conventional fuel-fired power station when supplying electricity to the main island of Mahé.

The Seychelles currently relies heavily on fossil fuels, which account for around 20% of the country’s imports. In this regard, the Ile de Romainville solar project is expected to save around 2 million litres of fuel annually.

Philippe Morin, CEO of PUC, said: “By combining solar energy with wind power, Seychelles will double its renewables capacity while freeing up resources for economic development. The battery storage component will also address the intermittency challenges of renewables, further consolidating Seychelles’ energy security.”

EPC services on the project will include subsea cabling, switchgear extensions, and an underground water piping system for module cleaning and the project is due for completion in Q2 2019.

Mohammed Saif Al Suwaidi, director general of ADFD, said: “Seychelles has placed climate change at the centre of its sustainable development strategy. Contributing to the financing of this solar park with integrated battery storage will bolster ADFD’s efforts in supporting the island country’s priorities, especially with regard to mitigating carbon emissions through the deployment of renewable energy. Cutting-edge projects like the Ile de Romainville Solar Park demonstrate the benefits of renewable energy ventures in long-term socio-economic development.”

The California legislature has put its stamp of approval on SB 700, a bill that will provide up to $830 million in new incentives to add behind the meter storage to residential and small business solar systems. “What we’re trying to do is create a mainstream market for energy storage, like we’ve done for solar PV,” Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar & Storage Association, tells Green Tech Media.

Backers of SB 700 call it the “Million Solar Roofs of Energy Storage” bill. They anticipate the legislation will help boost the state’s behind the meter battery storage total to 3,ooo MW by 2026, compared to only 176 MW today.

The official name of the program is the Self Generated Installation Program and it has been around in one form or another since 2006. Companies like  Tesla, Stem, Green Charge Networks, and Sunverge have taken advantage of its incentives for systems under 30 kilowatts in size.

The California PUC has amended the program to direct that 75% of the funds be used for energy storage. The application process now favors proposals that feature additional greenhouse gas or grid balancing benefits. The incentives also decrease over the period of the program, a decided advantage for those who want to add battery storage now rather than later.

While behind the meter storage is important, it comes at greater cost than grid-scale storage while giving individual customers greater control over their personal energy usage. However, some industry analysts expect the growing use of time of use rate structures could provide many of the benefits of behind the meter storage without the upfront expense.

“Funding is always a boon for an emerging technology like storage, so an additional infusion of cash will only boost the market,” says Brett Simon, senior energy storage analyst for Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables.. “However, we’ve seen in recent years that SGIP, while still important, has been less of a factor in California deployments compared to the program’s early years.”

In fact last year, of the 6.5 megawatts of residential storage deployed in California, only 1.6 megawatts were SGIP projects. On the non-residential side, only 17 MW of the 45 megawatts of behind-the-meter storage installed last year received SGIP credits. “We’ve heard from developers and installers that, as storage economics have improved and customer demand has risen, some customers forgo the SGIP,” Simon adds. Many residential customers “just want to get systems installed ASAP, don’t want to worry about additional paperwork and red tape, and are generally emotional buyers anyhow who aren’t concerned with price.”

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Several of the proposals approved by CAISO’s board on Wednesday were part of the third and final phase of the Energy Storage and Distributed Energy Resources (ESDER) initiative that stakeholders launched to foster greater participation of those resources in the wholesale market.

The proposals remove one more set of barriers and would allow greater participation of DERs and energy storage in the wholesale market, CAISO spokesman Steven Greenlee told Utility Dive.

The proposal approved for energy storage would allow BTM batteries to more easily consume energy during oversupply conditions and return that energy to the system during times of need.

BTM batteries can already participate in CAISO’s day-ahead and real time markets, but the proposed change to ISO rules would allow two resource identifications for one storage unit, depending on whether it is charging or discharging energy.

The rule change would create a new product, the proxy demand resource-load shift resource (PDR-LSR) that would help avoid confusion when a storage unit receives conflicting dispatch signals. In addition, it would allow a storage device to enter separate bids for charging and discharging.

That would help “incentivize behind-the-meter storage operators to operate their unit in alignment with grid needs,” Greenlee said. For example, he said, it would provide a signal for battery operators not to send energy to the grid when it is not needed or to charge when the energy is needed. The proposal would require direct metering of BTM batteries.

Subsidies will be available to residents of South Australia who want to purchase home battery systems from next month, the state’s Premier has announced.

On Saturday, the office of Premier Steven Marshall MP announced that more South Australians then ever will have access to “more affordable, reliable, secure energy”, revealing the opening of the Home Battery Scheme.

Up to 40,000 households will be eligible to receive funding towards the cost of home battery storage systems, which are in most cases – although not always – paired with solar PV installations. The state government will provide up to AU$100 million (US$71.22 million) in funding, while the Commonwealth Government (Australia’s national government) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with South Australian Minister for Energy and Mining Dan van Holst Pellekaan via its Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) to also provide a funding package, again worth AU$100 million.

The latter CEFC funding is understood to be enabling the additional offering of low-cost loans for solar, storage and related equipment, “competitive, flexible loans where needed, in addition to the subsidies,” Dan van Holst Pellekaan said, through which his administration expects “to be able to further assist households [to] overcome the upfront financial barriers to accessing storage technology”.

As with similar schemes already opened in limited regions of the world including Germany, Japan and latterly California, the Home Battery Scheme will offer assistance for a portion of a system’s cost. In South Australia’s case that will be capped at AU$6,000 per customer. Sample quotes from providers in Australia peg the cost of the likes of Tesla Powerwall 2 and Sonnen’s Eco systems between around AU$9,000 to AU$12,000.