MOSS LANDING — Monterey County is, as soon as once more, main by instance in the way forward for clear vitality storage as trade leaders this week ushered in the usage of Pacific Gasoline and Electrical’s latest addition to its Moss Touchdown electrical substation — a 182.5-megawatt Tesla Megapack battery vitality storage system.
The system dubbed Elkhorn Battery, which turned absolutely operational in April, was designed and is maintained by each PG&E and Tesla, and is owned and operated by PG&E. It has the capability to retailer and dispatch as a lot as 730 megawatt-hours of vitality to the California energy grid at a most charge of 182.5 megawatts for as much as 4 hours during times of excessive demand. That’s sufficient to energy 225,000 houses in Monterey County.
However to these behind the landmark enlargement, the affect far outstretches the Central Coast.
“That is simply the following step in bringing clear vitality, and a brilliant and affluent future for all Californians,” PG&E CEO Patti Poppe mentioned at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday.
Completion and now operation of PG&E’s Elkhorn Battery mission is the end result of practically 4 years of planning, improvement and development. First authorized by the California Public Utilities Fee in November 2018 and the Monterey County Planning Fee in 2020, the mission broke floor in July 2020, with heavy development by 2021. Earlier this yr, it was absolutely energized and licensed for market participation by the California Impartial System Operator, bringing the system formally on-line.
The Elkhorn Battery’s worth lies in its capability to combine inexpensive clear vitality into California’s grid, which, in flip, enhances the reliability of statewide vitality provide, PG&E spokesman Paul Doherty defined forward of Monday’s ceremony. Batteries, he mentioned, permit operators to retailer photo voltaic vitality throughout the day when it’s ample, in addition to when demand is usually low, after which discharge reserved energy to the grid when demand will increase.
“It’s a win-win-win,” Doherty mentioned. “It’s extra inexpensive vitality, it’s cleaner vitality, and it helps the state in assembly the wants of the grid, , particularly in intervals like the summertime peak demand when there’s potential shortages of vitality.”
The Elkhorn Battery system participates within the California Impartial System Operator wholesale electrical markets, which manages the movement of electrical energy for about 80% of California.
As an example what the power means for patrons and state vitality storage in real-time, Poppe cited a system success story from its quick stint actively working. Simply 10 days after connecting to the grid in April, Elkhorn noticed a noon charging value of about $10/megawatt-hour, when the system had “ample, ample, renewable clear vitality sources,” Poppe mentioned. In the meantime, at peak demand, energy was promoting at $100/megawatt-hour, however Elkhorn already had reserved energy to dispatch.
“That saves cash for our prospects and brings clear vitality that in any other case would have been a diesel-generated, fossil fuel-powered useful resource,” mentioned Poppe. “Individuals, I feel generally, speculate that California goes too far with clear vitality. Heck no, we’re simply getting began, and a facility like this makes it doable.”
The system contains 256 Tesla Megapack battery models on 33 concrete slabs, with every unit housing batteries and energy conversion tools in a single cupboard. Transformers and switchgears had been additionally put in alongside the megapacks to attach vitality saved within the batteries with PG&E’s present 115-kilovolt electrical transmission system in Moss Touchdown.
Mission supervisor Alan Prior defined the system’s design incorporates numerous redundancy “so if something goes improper with one bit, we are able to take it out of service” and the power will nonetheless work as wanted. He added that beneath seen batteries and transformers lies round 5 toes of infrastructure to help operation. All tools can also be seismically rated, so it's going to maintain working by an earthquake.
Although the Elkhorn Battery system is full, audio system at Monday’s ceremony emphasised that this endeavor is an element of a bigger pattern — and is nowhere close to the top of PG&E’s plans for clear vitality storage in California. At the moment, PG&E has contracts for battery vitality storage techniques totaling greater than 3,330 megawatts of capability being deployed statewide by 2024, 955.5 megawatts of which have already been linked to California’s electrical grid.
That, other than the brand new Elkhorn Battery system commissioned in Moss Touchdown, features a 200-megawatt Diablo Storage System in Contra Costa County; 60-megawatt Coso Battery Storage situated in Inyo County; 400-megawatt Vistra Moss Touchdown Battery Vitality Storage Facility, which accomplished Section II final yr; 63-megawatt NextEra Blythe system in Riverside County; and 50-megawatt Gateway system in San Diego County.
The techniques are a part of PG&E’s effort to obtain vitality sources led to by the California Public Utilities Fee’s 2021 resolution directing all load-serving entities within the state, together with investor-owned utilities resembling PG&E, to collectively procure 11.5 gigawatts of latest electrical energy sources.
The vitality would come on-line between 2023 and 2026 to help California’s greenhouse gasoline discount coverage and to interchange electrical energy era from the anticipated retirements of Southern California pure gasoline vegetation and PG&E’s Diablo Canyon Nuclear Energy Plant.
PG&E anticipates a further 1,400-plus megawatts of storage capability to come back on-line in 2022 and 2023.
“We’re making (a) future that our grandchildren and our grandchildren’s kids will be happy with. … We’ll have made it so seamless for them to have clear, dependable and secure vitality, and energy the lives and the prosperity that they dream of,” mentioned Poppe, concluding Monday’s ceremony. “We’re making that occur, and we’re making that occur proper right here in Elkhorn as we speak.”
