POWER May 2016 - 44

DISTRIBUTED ENERGY RESOURCES
Practical Considerations for Siting
Utility-Scale Battery Projects
Courtesy: Kokam
Getting the most cost-effective use out of a battery storage system isn't just a matter
of plug-and-play. Where and how you site a battery can make a big difference in
how well it does its job. Several battery experts who spoke to POWER explain what
you need to think about.
Thomas W. Overton, JD
S
o you want to buy a battery? Like real
estate, one big concern is location.
Where you put it, and where it is in relation
to other assets, matters a lot.
Non-hydro energy storage has passed out
of the experimental phase and is no longer the
province of visionaries imagining a grid that
operates in more than one direction (see this
month's " THE BIG PICTURE: Leading the
Charge " ). Battery storage is big business-
and getting bigger. A utility-scale battery
storage system (BSS) can easily be a sevenfigure
(and larger) commitment.
Naturally, a lot depends on what the battery
will be doing. Location issues for a BSS that
is intended to smooth output from a solar photovoltaic
(PV) plant or wind farm are not the
same as for one designed to provide frequency
44
regulation. Still, the location affects the battery's
performance no matter what its job is.
Where's the Interconnection?
One threshold concern, according to Jim McDowall,
business development manager for
Saft, who spoke to POWER in March, is the
proximity to the nearest substation.
" If you are two miles away from the substation, "
he said, " you could be losing 5%
of your power between the energy storage
system and the point of interconnection, and
that is certainly an issue in terms of the power
purchase agreement. "
That means that a more remote system has
to take into account transmission losses in
planning the project finances.
" It's better to have the system closest to
www.powermag.com
the point of interconnection because then
the battery doesn't have to work as hard, " he
said.
But it's not always possible to place the
BSS right next to the substation, as there may
be no available land, and if it's not a utility
project, the utility may not be willing to make
the space, or it may have other concerns about
where the system belongs.
McDowall discussed a battery project in
Puerto Rico that Saft is building for Windmar
at the 10-MW Coto Laurel Solar Farm (Figure
1). The battery is necessary so the plant
can meet the Puerto Rico Electric Power
Authority's (PREPA's) requirements for 4.5
MW of peak power for ramp-rate control and
1 MW for frequency response. But PREPA
did not want to own the battery because of
POWER | May 2016

http://www.powermag.com

POWER May 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER May 2016

Contents
POWER May 2016 - Cover1
POWER May 2016 - Cover2
POWER May 2016 - Contents
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