Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has successfully completed a technology demonstration project to explore the performance of battery storage systems participating in California's electricity markets.
The project, funded by California's Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) program, began in 2014 and utilised PG&E's 2 megawatt (MW) Vaca-Dixon and 4 MW Yerba Buena battery storage systems to provide energy and ancillary services in California Independent System Operator (CAISO) markets, the company said in a statement.
The Vaca-Dixon system “is the first battery storage resource in California to participate in the market” while the Yerba Buena system “is the first battery storage resource to both participate in the market and serve a reliability function supporting PG&E's distribution system in the event of a disturbance or outage.”
"We see great potential for energy storage systems to benefit Californians” said Kevin Dasso, vice president, electric asset management, PG&E.
“Through this demonstration PG&E has addressed multiple barriers and gained incredible operational experience with battery storage” he said, adding that “we've identified and resolved challenging implementation issues, established a new interconnection process, and developed an automated dispatch system that will serve as a platform for continued market participation."
The company said key project accomplishments include: developing and deploying a scalable technology platform to automate the response of current and future PG&E battery storage resources to CAISO; quantifying financial performance of battery systems in California energy markets and identifying opportunities and challenges associated with operating dual-use energy storage systems.
“We've successfully tested how batteries actually perform in the markets, substantially helping to inform the conversation about energy storage in California” commented Manho Yeung, senior director, Transmission Asset Management, PG&E. “Now that we have put these elements in place, it will be much easier to bring future battery systems online."
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In 2017, PG&E will utilise the Yerba Buena battery, located in the San Jose foothills, for another EPIC technology demonstration involving the coordination of 3rd-party distributed energy resources (DERs) - such as residential and commercial solar - using smart inverters and battery storage controlled through a distributed energy resource management system (DERMS), the company said.