Dive Brief:
- Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS) and SunEdison will partner to install and finance 50 MW of behind-the-meter energy storage at strategically selected sites in the Los Angeles region where peak shaving and load shifting supplied by the batteries can most effectively relieve distribution system stress.
- SunEdison will be the project developer and installer, using AMS storage assets. Financing will be through SunEdison's yieldco, TerraForm Power, backed by a ten year capacity contract with Southern California Edison (SCE), Greentech Media reports. The storage acquisition will be the first for TerraForm.
- SCE will use the energy storage resources to help offset the 2012 loss of supply from its shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and the expected loss of supply from fossil stations required to close in upcoming years because of the way they use water for cooling. The first 10 MW of storage is expected to be operational in 2016.
Dive Insight:
AMS recently announced a similar partnership with Black & Veatch to install 500 MWh of Tesla batteries for utility-scale storage projects as part of the 50 MW of contracts awarded by SCE in its 2013 Local Capacity Requirement solicitation. Black & Veatch will do engineering, procurement, and contracting.
SunEdison, the biggest renewable energy developer in the world, recently acquired Solar Grid Storage (SGS), a supplier of lithium-ion battery storage for solar and wind projects. SGS built its business by offering plug-and-play storage to utility-scalde projects for free and using its advanced inverter technology to sell the project’s stored power into regulation markets.
SGS CEO Tom Leyden told Utility Dive he is working on creating a PPA-like certainty of return on combined SGS battery storage and utility-scale renewables generation. The AMS deal’s SCE contract is the kind of bankable guarantee of return Leyden said was necessary for SunEdison’s Terraform Power to provide financing.
