In January 2017, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and Texas Emissions Reduction Plan (TERP) announced the award recipients for their New Technology Implementation Grant (NTIG) Program. Pedernales Electric Cooperative was awarded $1.5 million of the total $3.5 million of grant funds available for energy storage projects.
PEC proposed the Pedernales Energy Storage Automation & Management with Solar (PESAMS) project that will help the cooperative achieve a cleaner energy portfolio by implementing technology to reduce the emission of pollutants consistent with the objectives of the NTIG program while reducing energy and power supply-related costs. The PESAMS project integrates a blend of energy storage using a 2 MW-4 MWh lithium-ion battery energy storage system located near the newly installed Johnson City solar photovoltaic array.
The business model utilized by the PESAMS incorporates multiple storage services for integrating renewable resources to achieve maximum emission reduction while providing economic and operational benefits to PEC members.The objective of the PESAMS project is to demonstrate a cost-effective, reliable, duplicable and scalable system design that will achieve reduced emissions, reduced costs and increased operational efficiency.
The project is anticipated to be installed in Spring 2018 adjacent to PEC’s Johnson City substation. The project is estimated to have a 20 year life, which is in line with the photovoltaic array and balance of plant components.
Prior to the grant, Fractal performed an energy storage feasibility study for PEC to identify cost-effective business models for energy storage implementation. Fractal prepared the grant application for PEC, managed the RFP process and continues to provide owner’s engineering and advisory support to ensure project success.
“We’re excited to help PEC with their journey. PEC has the largest service territory of any distribution cooperative in the United States and it is diverse with many operational challenges. PEC is constantly pursing technologies and programs that will maintain low electricity rates for their members. Battery storage proved to be a highly economic mechanism for them to dramatically reduce power supply costs related to peak load and to increase reliability,” commented Judy McElroy, CEO of Fractal Energy Storage Consultants.
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