The AES Corporation announced its subsidiary, AES Energy Storage, has entered into two contracts with San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E). AES will install and commission two energy storage arrays totaling 37.5MW using its Advancion® energy storage solution at sites in San Diego County, California. The SDG&E-owned energy storage arrays will help to improve regional reliability and integrate greater amounts of renewable energy when operational by the end of January 2017.
“We are excited that SDG&E has selected AES’ Advancion energy storage solution to help meet peak demand and ensure the reliability of the electric grid in Southern California,” said Andrés Gluski, AES President and Chief Executive Officer. “AES recently made Advancion available to utilities, developers and commercial customers interested in owning our innovative and scalable solution, and SDG&E’s selection of Advancion highlights the significant growth potential we see for our energy storage business.”
With the support of the California Public Utilities Commission, SDG&E leveraged an ongoing competitive solicitation to seek energy storage projects on an expedited basis. SDG&E selected Advancion 4, AES’ fourth generation battery-based energy storage platform and recipient of the Edison Electric Institute’s 2016 International Edison Award. Advancion is designed for rapid deployment and is a smart, dependable and cost competitive alternative to peaking power plants that improves existing electric infrastructure and enables a greater penetration of clean energy resources.
“These batteries are beneficial because they maintain a reliable flow of energy to customers when they need it most,” said James P. Avery, SDG&E’s chief development officer. “We also are national leaders in supplying renewable resources, with more than 33 percent of the energy we supply to customers coming from wind and solar. These batteries will help smoothly integrate this growing supply of clean energy onto the power grid for use by our customers.”
The SDG&E Advancion arrays will be able to provide 37.5MW of power for four continuous hours and serve as a 75MW of flexible resource to the grid. The arrays will be installed at two SDG&E substation facilities: 30MW in Escondido and 7.5MW in El Cajon. Once completed, the Escondido array will be the largest battery-based energy storage project in operation in the United States. Both arrays will incorporate components from best-in-class Advancion certified suppliers, including batteries by Samsung SDI and power conversion systems by Parker Hannifin.
AES has been deploying advanced battery-based energy storage onto electric grids since 2008, including recent installations in the United States, Northern Ireland and the Netherlands. With more than three million megawatt-hours of delivered service across 136MW of energy storage projects in four countries and an additional 296MW under construction or in late stage development, AES is the most experienced energy storage provider in the world.