Ameresco, a clean energy solution provider, has signed a contract with California-based utility Southern California Edison (SCE) to provide a total of 537.5MW/2,150MWh battery energy storage systems.

(An aerial view of Ameresco's deployment of renewable energy, energy storage systems, and energy efficiency solutions at a military facility in the United States)

Ameresco said that the transaction includes three battery energy storage systems with a continuous discharge time of 4 hours, each of which will be connected to the power distribution network to alleviate California's power system reliability problems. California has suffered a serious power supply shortage in recent times, especially in the summer when heat waves, forest fire risks, and other extreme weather are experienced.

California Governor Gavin Newsom recently declared a state of emergency and passed legislation to expedite the entry of renewable energy power generation facilities and energy storage systems into the grid. The California government also pointed out in April that there may be a 5GW power shortage next summer.

In this context, Ameresco and SCE signed the procurement, construction and maintenance (EPCM) contracts for these three battery energy storage systems. After the completion of the project, it will provide services for the San Joaquin Valley, Cucamonga Ranch and Long Beach area and its surrounding areas. Electricity service.

These energy storage systems will be charged from the grid during the trough period of power consumption, and then discharged as required during the peak period of power demand.

Although energy storage systems are an increasingly common application in California, Ameresco said the deal is a novel attempt because these energy storage systems will be connected to the grid and can directly provide electricity to meet local power needs.

Although the scale of these three battery energy storage systems is large, the installation and operation speed will be very fast: Ameresco said it plans to put these three energy storage systems into commercial operation by August 2022.

SCE said that this will add 537.5MW/2,150MWh of battery energy storage systems to its energy storage portfolio. The company said that with the long-term contract signed last year, the 1,355MW battery energy storage system and the original energy storage system, the transaction gives SCE the total installed capacity of the energy storage system (including energy storage resources owned by third parties) reached approximately 2,810 MW.

California's Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) recently stated that by the end of 2023, the installed capacity of the battery energy storage system project it has acquired and deployed will exceed 1,400MW.

Both PG&E and SCE have about 15 million or more household users, while San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) has much fewer customers, only about 3 million. SDG&E recently stated that the company is investing in the deployment of approximately 145MW of energy storage projects in its service area.

SCE said that California has set a goal of achieving 100% clean energy by 2045, and they are also following this goal. The company's white paper released in 2019 estimates that it needs to deploy 30GW of energy storage systems and 10GW of distributed energy (DER) in California's power grid to achieve this goal.

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