Local Battery Energy Storage Systems Serve as a Cost-Effective, Engineered Solution to Meet Electric Grid Needs
By Paul Doherty
PG&E is procuring three new battery energy storage systems to cost-effectively expand local energy capacity, extending the useful life of existing grid infrastructure while accommodating for customer energy demand.
PG&E identified several locations throughout its service area with forecasted electric grid overloads — primarily associated with increasing customer energy needs and usage — that could be addressed with non-wires solutions including locally sited distributed energy resources, such as batteries.
“By strategically placing right-sized batteries in locations with identified grid needs, PG&E is enhancing local reliability, proactively supporting new customer interconnections and existing customer load growth requests, and safely extending the useful life of our assets while reducing customer costs. These new systems represent the beginning for PG&E as we work to architect an electric system that is resilient, decarbonized and optimized for local and system needs,” said Jason Glickman, PG&E's executive vice president, Engineering, Planning and Strategy.
PG&E outlined these opportunities in its 2021 Distribution Deferral Opportunity Report and Grid Needs Assessment. PG&E subsequently launched a competitive Fall 2021 Distribution Investment Deferral Framework (DIDF) Request for Offers (RFO) for DER solutions that could extend the useful life of existing substation transformers and distribution powerlines by providing additional local energy capacity.
The distributed energy resources had to be cost-effective compared to replacing a substation transformer bank or reconductoring the electric distribution feeders connected to the substation.
PG&E considered proposals that incorporated energy storage, electric vehicles, energy efficiency, demand response, renewable distributed generation (solar PV), and permanent load shift.
As a result of the request for offers, PG&E is deploying three new lithium-ion battery energy storage systems totaling about 3 megawatts, allowing the company to defer powerline reconductoring and transformer replacement projects, and effectively extending the life of those existing assets, preventing grid overload conditions, and supporting customer load growth.
The three systems are in the following locations:
- In Kern County, PG&E is working with White Pine Renewables to deploy a front-of-the-meter battery energy storage system on PG&E’s Lakeview circuit, which is expected to begin operations by mid-2024.
- In Calaveras County, PG&E is working with Sunnova Energy to deploy a behind-the-meter battery energy storage system on PG&E’s Mormon circuit, which is expected to begin operations by mid-2025.
- In Santa Clara County, PG&E is working with Swell Energy to deploy a behind-the-meter battery energy storage system on PG&E’s Saratoga circuit, which is expected to begin operations by mid-2026.
PG&E is also looking to procure an additional approximately 27 MW of DERs at several other locations to provide cost-effective, reliable distribution service. PG&E recently published these opportunities in its 2022 Distribution Deferral Opportunity Report and Grid Needs Assessment, and launched a 2022 DIDF RFO on Sept. 15 for three locations. Offers for this RFO are due Dec. 1.
The locations are also available at PG&E’s recently updated Distribution Resource Planning Data Portal, which is designed to help energy contractors, developers, and aggregators find information on potential project sites for distributed energy resources.
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