Dive Brief:

• Southern California Edison (SCE) has signed contracts for 2,221 MW of power from new resources to meet it customers’ long-term electricity needs, including 250 MW of storage capacity, Greentech Media reports.
• It is the first time SCE has contracted with energy storage projects through a competitive solicitation. The utility was required to seek at least 50 MW of storage.
• The contracts, which seek to maintain reliability as the region deals with the closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and anticipated retirement of older, natural gas generation plants, require California Public Utilities Commission approval.

Dive Insight:

Greentech Media points out that SCE had been required to sign contracts of 50 MW of storage, but wound up with five times that amount.

“This solicitation is the first time that such a wide range of new diverse resources were directly competing in the purchasing process,” said Colin Cushnie, SCE vice president of energy procurement and management. “No single energy source can give us everything we need all of the time, particularly with our emphasis to use environmentally clean resources. To provide for flexibility, we need to accommodate a mix of energy resources.”

Among the contracts, AES will provide 1,284 MW of combined cycle gas-fired generation and 100 MW of interconnected battery-based energy storage (equivalent to 200 MW of flexible energy storage resource). The new capacity will be built at existing power plant sites south of Los Angeles.

Energy storage provider Stem Inc. was awarded an 85 MW contract and will deploy its behind-the-meter energy storage solution at customer locations in the Western Los Angeles Basin, according to Greentech. The storage will act as dispatchable capacity to enhance the local reliability of the region.

“This is a major win for behind-the-meter storage, demonstrating that this technology is a valuable tool for both utilities and their commercial and industrial customers,” said Janice Lin, co-founder and executive director for the California Energy Storage Alliance.