Invenergy bringing over 60 MW of storage online for PJM frequency regulation

Dive Brief:

Invenergy has brought a new 31.5 MW storage facility online in central Illinois, PV Tech reports. The Grand Ridge storage facility, situated nearby an existing 1.5 MW storage site, increases the capacity available to grid operator PJM Interconnection for frequency regulation.
The battery storage facility is also near a 210 MW wind project and a 20 MW solar array, part of Invenergy’s 9 GW of U.S. renewables. Battery-stored energy can provide quick-response grid-balancing power on a sub-hourly basis that is valuable to grid operators in sustaining system frequency and prevent outages.
Invenergy is also scheduled to bring the 31.5 MW Beech Ridge Energy Storage project online later this year, bringing its operational storage capacity to well over 100 MW. With that addition, PJM will have more than 150 MW of energy storage for frequency regualtion on its grid.

Dive Insight:

For the new storage projects, Invenergy is using EV and battery maker BYD America’s proprietary containerized lithium-iron phosphate battery systems. BYD recently announced it will scale up its U.S. production to rival Tesla’s giga-factory plans.

The PJM Interconnection, which covers a Mid-Atlantic region service territory from Illinois to Maryland and Pennsylvania to Virginia, just added 60 MW of networked energy storage from NEC Energy Solutions (NEC) for fast-response frequency regulation. That facility is to be owned and operated by Amergin Energy and expected to be operational by mid-2016.

PJM’s frequency regulation services market was the first from an independent system operator to offer significant remuneration for quick-start fast-ramp power from batteries and other load control systems that substitute for power plant-provided services. Payments have average $40 per MWh to $50 per MWh for capacity plus performance since 2012.

The Invenergy additons bring PJM’s frequency regulation market pipeline to over 150 MW, and more is to come. Startup Alevo is also planning 200 MW of frequency regulation for PJM and Solar Grid Storage (SGS) — just purchased by SunEdison — is planning another 100 MW.

Tesla’s newly announced utility-scale storage is thought to not be well-suited for frequency regulation because it lacks the necessary fast-ramp, high power discharge capability.