United States – Ameresco has signed a contract with Southern California Edison (SCE) to design and develop three grid scale battery energy storage systems (BESSs) at existing substation sites throughout SCE’s California service zone.
Due to the impact of extreme weather occurrences in the state, this aggressive strategy will considerably boost grid resilience, with a commercial operating date of August 2022 as a target.
The substation energy storage systems will be created to meet the emergency dependability threats mentioned in the Governor’s Emergency Proclamation, which calls for the use of clean energy resources to overcome power shortages caused by prolonged drought, wildfires, and heatwaves. The contracted systems will be located at three distinct distribution-level substation sites within SCE’s service zone to efficiently meet the electrical demands of the San Joaquin Valley, Rancho Cucamonga and surrounding areas, and the Long Beach area. The systems have a capacity of 537.5 MW and a duration of four hours, for a total of 2,150 MWh.
The three substation systems represent a novel method to integrate advanced energy storage at the distribution level in order to meet overall system capacity and reliability requirements. They will be operated in such a way that they maximize grid reliability by charging during periods of excess power and discharging during periods of necessity. A turnkey Engineering, Procurement, Construction, and Maintenance (EPCM) contractual method will be used for the project.
This project, when finished, will directly contribute to the State of California’s clean energy and carbon neutrality goals, as well as assist Edison International, SCE’s parent company, in meeting its 2045 net-zero greenhouse gas emissions pledge.
Because the EPCM Agreement was signed after September 30, 2021, it has no bearing on Ameresco’s financial results for the fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2021. Ameresco is assessing the impact of the EPCM agreement on its financial results for the fourth quarter ending December 31, 2021, and will provide an update when it releases its third quarter 2021 financial results after the market close on Monday, November 1, 2021, and on the accompanying earnings conference call.
