POWER September 2017 - 34

TOP PLANTS
Two SCE Gas-Battery Hybrid
Projects Revolutionize
Peaker Performance
Courtesy: Southern California Edison (SCE)/General Electric (GE)
For deploying a novel, groundbreaking gas-battery hybrid technology along with
environmentally significant upgrades within a tight installment window, and despite
logistical hurdles, Southern California Edison's Center Peaker and Grapeland
Peaker plants are especially deserving of POWER's Top Plant recognition.
Sonal Patel
I
n October 2015, a major injection well
rupture at the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas
Storage Facility north of Los Angeles,
California, led to almost 100,000 metric tons
of uncontrolled natural gas being released
from the underground reservoir before it was
sealed more than 15 weeks later. That event,
which forced thousands of evacuations and is
thought of as one of the worst environmental
disasters in U.S. history, left regional gasfired
generators in a lurch.
In California, which had embarked on a
drive to boost gas-fired generation capacity
to back up its surge of renewable generation,
the dilemma was especially dire.
But rather than pushing to reestablish gas
supplies alone, and in an attempt to thwart
the increasing risk to the electric system
from disruptions in gas supply, the California
Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)
in May 2016 expedited the approval of
utility-owned and third-party battery storage
in Southern California Edison (SCE)
and San Diego Gas and Electric territories
(see " Battery Storage Goes Mainstream " in
POWER's May 2017 issue).
When the CPUC issued its emergency resolution,
SCE, the largest subsidiary of Edi34
son
International and a prime power supplier
to most of Southern California, was already
working to improve the operational flexibility
of its peaker fleet, including the 50-MW
Center Peaker in Norwalk (see opening image)
and the 50-MW Grapeland Peaker in
Rancho Cucamonga.
" The Aliso Canyon emergency pushed us
to think that combining our flexibility upgrades
with energy storage could provide a
unique opportunity to expand economic and
environmental benefits, " Vibhu Kaushik,
SCE's principal manager for asset management
and generation strategy at the company's
generation division, told POWER in
August. That's why SCE evaluated a proposal,
submitted by technology conglomerate
General Electric (GE) and Wellhead Power
Solutions-a subsidiary of Sacramentobased
independent power producer Wellhead
Electric Co.-that combined a lithium-ion
battery with an existing gas turbine, and
which sought to operate it using an integrated
control system.
An Innovative, Groundbreaking
Technology
That technology, called a " Hybrid Enhanced
www.powermag.com
Gas Turbine " (Hybrid EGT), fully integrates
a 10-MW/4.3-MWh battery energy storage
system (BESS) developed by GE energy
startup Current with a 50-MW GE LM6000
aero-derivative gas turbine (Figure 1). Under
normal conditions, GE noted, some gas turbines
must run at minimum loads to provide
spinning reserves to the grid, forcing them to
burn gas even when the energy is not really
needed. The EGT provides spinning reserves
using the battery while also responding
quickly to any changes in power demand, allowing
the gas turbine to operate in coordination
with the battery.
According to Wellhead Power, at a high
level, the EGT promised to add 10 MW
of high-speed capability into the existing
LM6000 operating range, not on top of the
existing operating range. " This allows the
EGT to provide high speed energy, ancillary
and grid support services, at a lower cost and
smaller [greenhouse gas (GHG)] footprint
than traditional thermal resources and without
the energy neutrality issues associated
with stand-alone storage, " it explained.
The Birth of Twin Projects
For SCE, the benefits were clear. " The presPOWER
| September 2017
http://www.powermag.com

POWER September 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER September 2017

Contents
POWER September 2017 - Cover1
POWER September 2017 - Cover2
POWER September 2017 - Contents
POWER September 2017 - 2
POWER September 2017 - 3
POWER September 2017 - 4
POWER September 2017 - 5
POWER September 2017 - 6
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POWER September 2017 - Cover3
POWER September 2017 - Cover4
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