POWER May 2015 - 22

DISTRIBUTED GENERATION AND STORAGE
Batteries Are Carving Out Space
on the Grid
Courtesy: AES Energy Storage
Falling prices and technological improvements have brought battery storage systems
into direct competition with traditional distributed generation, demand response,
and peaking generation resources. But making one work efficiently and
profitably is not just plug and play.
Thomas W. Overton, JD
L
ast fall, Southern California Edison (SCE)
had some big decisions to make. The giant
utility, which serves 14 million people
across the southern half of the state, needed
to procure just over 2 GW of power from a
welter of options to meet its projected needs.
Among many elements to consider was SCE's
mandate from the California Public Utilities
Commission (CPUC) to procure at least 50
MW of energy storage by the end of 2014.
This requirement was part of the CPUC's directive
to the state's investor-owned utilities to
procure 1.3 GW of storage by 2020.
The competitive bidding was robust, and
SCE received more than 1,800 offers of all sorts.
When the dust settled, no one was surprised that
SCE had met its 50-MW storage requirement.
What was a surprise to nearly everyone
was that SCE exceeded that target by more
than five times.
22
The 260 MW of storage resources-more
than 50% of its 2020 requirement-that SCE
signed agreements for included 235 MW of
battery storage resources, covering both gridconnected
and behind-the-meter facilities. The
largest contract was a 100-MW, 400-MWh
Advancion lithium-ion battery system to be
supplied by AES Energy Storage at AES California's
Alamitos facility in Long Beach.
What made SCE jump so far ahead of its
mandate? Simply put, it made economic sense.
" This solicitation is the first time that such
a wide range of new diverse resources were
directly competing in the purchasing process, "
Colin Cushnie, SCE's vice president
of energy procurement and management,
said at the time. " No single energy source can
give us everything we need all of the time,
particularly with our emphasis to use environmentally
clean resources. To provide for
www.powermag.com
flexibility, we need to accommodate a mix of
energy resources. "
And in considering its options, SCE
concluded that the range of battery storage
systems provided a cost-effective means of
enhancing reliability.
SCE's decision was significant for several
reasons, according to AES Energy Storage
President John Zahurancik, who spoke to
POWER in March.
" It's one of the first times we've seen
storage go head-to-head with other types of
resources and come out selected as the economic
option, " he said. " We're now seeing
storage get the kinds of commercial structures
that other resources have traditionally gotten. "
The 100-MW Advancion system will be
the largest battery-based storage system in the
world-provided it comes online before larger
systems are developed, which is no certain
POWER | May 2015
http://www.powermag.com
POWER May 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER May 2015
