Nonprofit organization Clean Coalition has facilitated the approvals process for a 40-MWh front-of-meter energy storage project for Southern California Edison (SCE). The Vallecito Energy Storage Resilience (VESR) Project in Carpinteria, California, should come online in December 2020.
VESR, one of the winners of SCE’s local capacity requirements RFP, was awarded a 20-year Energy Storage Resource Adequacy Agreement by SCE and is staged to provide significant additional grid services.
VESR will provide foundational resilience to the portion of Santa Barbara County served by SCE — a highly transmission-vulnerable and disaster-prone area known as the Goleta Load Pocket (GLP). The GLP spans 70 miles of Southern California coastline, from Point Conception to Lake Casitas, encompassing the cities of Goleta, Santa Barbara (including Montecito), and Carpinteria.
The Clean Coalition has determined that to achieve indefinite renewables-driven backup power that provides 100% protection to the GLP against a complete transmission outage, 200 MW of solar and 400 MWh of energy storage needs to be sited within the GLP. By itself, VESR represents a full 10% of the energy storage needed to achieve this goal. The Goleta Load Pocket Community Microgrid (GLPCM), which is being staged with this 100% resilience goal in mind, will bring the area economic, environmental, and resilience benefits.
In addition to moving forward resilience for the larger GLP, VESR provides the energy storage foundation for a potential future Carpinteria Community Microgrid. VESR will set the stage for four additional utility-scale battery projects that are expected to come online within the GLP by March 2021. One of these is expected to be located about a quarter mile from VESR, providing further potential for a Carpinteria Community Microgrid. Together, these five battery projects account for 70% of the 400 MWh that is needed for 100% resilience in the GLP, when combined with 200 MW of additional solar.
News item from Clean Coalition
“The Clean Coalition has determined that to achieve indefinite renewables-driven backup power that provides 100% protection to the GLP against a complete transmission outage, 200 MW of solar and 400 MWh of energy storage needs to be sited within the GLP. By itself, VESR represents a full 10% of the energy storage needed to achieve this goal. The Goleta Load Pocket Community Microgrid (GLPCM), which is being staged with this 100% resilience goal in mind, will bring the area economic, environmental, and resilience benefits.”
The original TESLA “big battery” installed in the Hornsdale wind farm in Australia was originally 100MW/129MWh of energy storage, it has been described as a 10% grid solution. Just recently after only 2.5 years of commissioned use, the Energy storage system paid for itself and was expanded to 150MW/193.5MWh, this would be about a 12% solution. It doesn’t take much to make a big difference. It also depends on how one defines “resiliency” when talking about grid services. When micro-grids become construction projects that are in total $400/kWh of generation and energy storage, fueled generation makes no sense anymore.