State regulators want Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to replace three natural gas plants with energy storage, a move that represents another significant step toward a clean energy future.

The California Public Utilities Commission will vote Jan. 11 on the proposal that would require PG&E to seek clean alternatives to replace the three fossil-fuel plants.

Houston-based Calpine, which owns the plants, and the California Independent System Operator, which runs the state’s electric grid, argue that the gas-fueled plants are needed to ensure reliability in the local areas they serve.

The three Northern California plants — in Feather River, Yuba and Metcalf — don’t have long-term contracts with utilities, but have been identified by Cal-ISO as facilities that should remain in operation to support the electric grid when needed.

Regulators said in a press release Wednesday that any potential needs the natural gas plants provide can be met with clean energy, particularly battery storage.

“Energy storage is a clean energy resource that can be fast-responding, reliable and constructed in a short time frame,” the commission said in its statement.

In January, Tesla Inc. and Southern California Edison unveiled one of the world’s largest energy storage facilities, which was ordered up and installed in three months.

The Rosemead-based utility uses the collection of lithium-ion batteries, which look like big white refrigerators, to gather electricity at night and other off-peak hours so that the electrons can be injected back into the grid when power use jumps.

The facility at Edison’s Mira Loma substation in Ontario contains nearly 400 Tesla PowerPack units on a 1.5-acre site, which can store enough energy to power 2,500 homes for a day or 15,000 homes for four hours.

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Tesla Motors Inc. and Southern California Edison on Monday unveiled one of the world’s largest energy storage facilities, part of a massive deployment of grid-connected batteries that regulators hail as key to helping keep Southern California’s lights on and reducing fossil-fuel reliance.

The facility at the utility’s Mira Loma substation in Ontario contains nearly 400 Tesla PowerPack units on a 1.5-acre site, which can store enough energy to power 2,500 homes for a day or 15,000 homes for four hours. The utility will use the collection of lithium-ion batteries, which look like big white refrigerators, to gather electricity at night and other off-peak hours so that the electrons can be injected back into the grid when power use jumps.

Tesla and Edison sealed the deal on the project in September as part of a state-mandated effort to compensate for the hobbled Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility. They  fired up the batteries in December.

“This was unprecedented fast action,” Michael Picker, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony as part of media events across the region to tout a growing number of energy storage projects.

Picker said advancements in how electricity is delivered are happening at a pace that even his office can’t track. “The innovation taking place occurs faster than we can regulate,” he said.

In addition to the Tesla-Edison project, storage facilities of similar size are being rolled out by San Diego Gas & Electric with AES Energy Storage and by Greensmith Energy Partners with AltaGas. In all, the projects are adding 77.5 megawatts of energy storage to the state’s electricity grid.

Ravi Manghani, director of energy storage for Boston-based GTM Research, said the delivery of the battery systems in a matter of months highlights that energy storage, which continues to drop in price, can be a strong alternative during times of high electricity consumption to natural gas peaker plants, which contribute to pollution. Peaker plants, which are tapped during high-demand periods, can take two to three years to get through the permitting and building process, he said.

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One of the nation’s leading residential solar companies has teamed up with the world’s largest automotive battery supplier to provide energy storage for homes.

San Francisco-based Sunrun Inc., which bills itself as the largest dedicated residential solar company in the country, said Wednesday it will offer LG Chem’s energy-storage technology. Sunrun will offer lithium-ion batteries as part of its BrightBox solar generation plus energy storage systems.

BrightBox is available only to residential customers in Hawaii and is expected in more states in coming months, although Sunrun did not give a time frame.

“The energy-storage market is advancing at a breakneck pace,” Michael Grasso, Sunrun’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement. “We are enabling a home energy management service that integrates rooftop solar generation with onsite energy storage.”

Wonjoon Suh, a global marketing department leader for LG Chem, said the partnership will produce a product at the forefront of solar and storage technologies. 

“Sunrun understands the importance of giving consumers control of their energy by integrating storage with solar,” Suh said.

LG Chem is Korea’s largest diversified chemical company. It operates three main business units: petrochemicals, IT & electronic materials and energy solutions.

Solar panel companies increasingly have been creating partnerships with storage companies to offer similar products, including through such mergers as battery maker Tesla Motors and SolarCity.

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They may not get it this year, but boosters of energy storage technologies want their sector to get the same tax credits that the federal government extends to the wind and solar industries.

“It would be a good economic investment for us as a government and as a nation to invest in advancing these technologies,” said Matt Roberts, executive director for the industry’s trade group, the Energy Storage Assn.

Under a bill introduced by Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), qualifying energy storage technologies such as batteries, thermal energy storage and regenerative fuel cells would get a 30% investment tax credit.

The Heinrich bill essentially runs parallel with the 30% tax credit that wind and solar receive from the federal government and, like the wind and solar credits, eventually would taper off.

Reps. Michael M. Honda (D-San Jose) and Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) have introduced a similar but more complicated bill in the House of Representatives.

The prospect of a tax credit created some buzz at the Energy Storage North America conference that wrapped up Thursday in San Diego.

“Storage is too expensive,” said Keith Martin, an attorney at the Washington, D.C., law firm of Chadbourne & Parke, one of the panelists at the conference. “If the government can help with the cost-sharing, it will then get more people into the market.” 

Under current rules, energy storage can receive a federal tax credit only if it is paired with wind and solar electricity production, most often seen when a storage component is matched with a rooftop solar system.

The proposed legislation would establish tax credits for standalone storage systems.

Extending the tax credit “would encourage deployment of storage throughout our electric power sector,” said Janice Lin, executive director of the California Energy Storage Alliance, an advocacy group. “The consequences of that are dramatic for ratepayers.”

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