Dive Brief:
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Greensmith Energy has installed its GEMS software platform at American Electric Power’s 2 MW, 14 MWh storage facility in West Virginia.
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AEP uses the storage facility as a backup system, but the overlay of Greensmith’s software allows the utility to sell frequency regulation into the PJM Interconnection market.
- Greensmith also upgraded the safety and reliability of the storage facility, allowing the sodium sulfur batteries to pass PJM’s qualification tests on par with lithium-ion battery built for frequency regulation.
Dive Insight:
AEP is one of the first U.S. utilities to embrace energy storage, installing facilities in West Virginia and Texas.
The utility company is also an investor in the emerging sector, putting $5 million into Greensmith, the company that updated its storage system, in 2015.
In addition to AEP, Greensmith has provided software for a 500-kW, 1,500-kWh storage project for San Diego Gas & Electric. About two-thirds of Greensmith's customers are electric utilities, including Hawaiian Electric, San Diego Gas & Electric, and Sacramento Municipal Utility District.
In the recent installation for AEP in West Virginia, Greensmith was able to overlay the existing storage software in order to enable the storage facility to generate income by providing frequency regulation to PJM.
“Without swapping out a single piece of hardware, Greensmith will enable AEP to take an existing storage asset and turn it into a revenue stream,” John Jung, president and CEO of Greensmith, said in a 2016 statement when the project was first announced.
