Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) has proposed plans to procure energy from nine new battery energy storage projects in California, US.
If approved by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the proposed projects will have a total capacity of around 1.6GW and expand the company’s total battery energy storage system capacity to over 3.33GW by 2024.
Slated to be operational between 2023 and 2026, the projects will support California’s greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction policy and replace electricity generation from the expected retirements of Southern California natural gas plants and PG&E’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant (DCPP).
The nine projects will use lithium-ion battery energy storage technology, each with a four-hour discharge duration.
PG&E electric engineering senior vice president Joe Bentley said: “As we work year-round to strengthen our electric system, we are also planning, engineering and building the grid for a future that harnesses the power of solar plus storage on an unprecedented scale.
“And we know we can’t go it alone. We welcome continued partnerships with the best and the brightest to make California’s clean energy future a reality.”
PG&E has signed 15-year resource adequacy agreements for the projects, including Beaumont energy storage project with 100MW capacity; Edwards Sanborn energy storage project with 169MW capacity; and Canyon Country energy storage project with 80MW capacity.
The projects also include MOSS350 energy storage project with 350MW capacity; Inland Empire energy storage project with 100MW capacity; and Corby Energy Storage project with 125MW capacity.
In addition, the projects comprises Kola energy storage project with 275MW capacity; Nighthawk storage project with 300MW capacity; and Caballero energy storage project with 99.7MW capacity.
The agreements are part of a competitive request for offers (RFO) launched by PG&E to procure energy resources ordered by the CPUC’s June 2021 decision, which directed all load serving entities (LSEs) in California to procure 11.5GW of new capacity.
In July 2020, PG&E and EV-maker Tesla have broken ground on a 182.5MW lithium-ion battery energy storage system (BESS) at PG&E’s electric substation in Moss Landing in Monterey County in California.
