Two grid-scale standalone battery energy storage system (BESS) announcements in the United States have highlighted the move by utilities to use energy storage to balance their networks and cope with the inexorable advance of renewables.
From ESS News
Investor Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has backed renewables developer Strata Clean Energy’s bid to acquire the 255 MW/1,020 MWh Scatter Wash battery site it has been constructing.
The standalone battery site, in Maricopa County, Phoenix, Arizona in 2023 secured a 20-year tolling agreement with Arizona Public Service (APS), the US state’s largest electric utility. Under the terms of the deal, APS will pay for the electricity to charge the battery system, plus a capacity payment to Strata, and will be able to discharge the site when needed to help stabilize its grid.
The battery system, which is set to be operational in the first half of 2025, broke ground and secured backing from JP Morgan, Nomura, and other lenders in February 2024.
CIP has backed Strata’s acquisition out of its CI V fund, which it aims to build to a value of €12 billion ($13.4 billion).
“Standalone storage will play an important role in addressing the rapidly growing energy capacity needs in the US Southwest, enabling the decarbonization of Arizona’s power grid while maintaining reliability,” said Tim Evans, partner and head of North America at CIP.
When announcing the tolling agreement with APS, in 2023, Strata mentioned an intent to develop an eventual 400 MW/1.6 GWh BESS at Scatter Wash but no mention was made of the larger scale in a press release issued on behalf of Strata by Mercom capital Group to announce the acquisition of the facility.
In a separate US-based standalone grid-scale battery storage announcement, clean energy company BrightNight revealed details of a 200 MW/800 MWh BESS it plans to construct in Washington State.
The Greenwater BESS project, at an industrial site in Pierce County, will be developed by BrightNight and peer Cordelio Power with support from infrastructure consultancy Aecom to support the grid of utility Puget Sound Energy.
BrightNight Chairman and CEO Martin Hermann said, “We are delighted to partner with Puget Sound Energy to bring our next-generation, AI-enhanced Battery Energy Storage System to the great state of Washington, delivering reliable and dispatchable power to one of the regions spearheading America’s decarbonization and electrification efforts.”
A conditional use permit was issued for Greenwater’s transmission infrastructure by the city of Sumner on Aug. 26.
