Dive Brief:
- Southern California Edison (SCE) on Friday announced that it signed seven contracts for 195 MW of energy storage and demand response resources to meet local capacity requirements in its Santa Clara sub-area.
- The selected resources — one demand response and six energy storage projects following two SCE solicitations — are expected to go online before the summer of 2021, according to a press release. The company pointed out that no gas-fired resources were selected.
- One of the contracts, a 100 MW energy storage project awarded to Strata, will become one of North America's largest operational lithium-ion battery systems when it comes online in December 2020, SCE said.
Dive Insight:
By concluding another solicitation for energy storage resources, SCE continues its run as one of the country's leading utilities in storage deployment. SCE's vision to add 30 GW of additional renewable capacity to California's electric grid by 2030 makes energy storage increasingly important.
The seven new projects, which remain subject to California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approval, further the utility's clean energy goals.
"Unlike other solicitations to increase the generation capacity of the overall electric system, this solicitation specifically sought to meet local needs in the Moorpark area and address electrical energy storage needs related to restricted natural gas operations at Southern California Gas Company's Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Field," Colin Cushnie, vice president of energy procurement and management at SEC, said in a statement.
SCE's Aliso Canyon Energy Storage 2 request for offers and the Local Capacity requirements request for proposal targeted clean energy resources connecting through the Santa Clara and Goleta substations to address local reliability needs, the company said.
The latest SCE procurement comes only months after Pacific Gas & Electric received the CPUC's approval for four energy storage projects totaling 567.5 MW / 2,270 MWh in capacity.
Energy storage has helped decrease California's reliance on gas for years, particularly since 2016, when regulators ordered accelerated battery procurements to counteract the closure of a natural gas storage facility outside Los Angeles.
