Con Edison and GI Energy said they installed a 1 MW / 1 MWh battery storage system at a customer site in the Bronx, a borough of New York City. The battery is intended to take stress off the utility’s grid on hot summer days when electrical usage soars.
It is the second lithium-ion battery system the two have placed as part of a demonstration project. The first went into service early last year on Staten Island. An agreement gives Con Edison the right to discharge the batteries to provide power to customers as needed.
Con Edison
Under the demonstration project, GI Energy and Con Edison choose customer locations where the utility’s analysis shows the electrical grid needs support. When Con Edison is not using the energy storage unit for grid support, GI Energy plans to dispatch power into the wholesale market.
The utility said that battery storage will take on greater importance as New York State increases the amount of renewable energy lighting homes and businesses, running vehicles and providing heating and cooling.
Con Edison and a partner, 174 Power Global, also recently announced a 100 MW /400 MWh battery at the site of a former fossil fuel plant near the East River in Astoria, Queens. The company also has a 2 MW storage system in Ozone Park, Queens.
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It would seem to me that the lowest hanging fruit in energy storage would be to retrofit hydroelectric dams to fast response sequential turbines such that the dams would be scalable as needed, no pumping necessary. Just turn off turbines flow and raise the water level while wind and/or solar peak, turn them back on as wind wanes or solar becomes unavailable. Seeing as the dams are already connected to the grid one would fully utilize the maximum interconnect capacity by co-locating wind and solar very near existing dams where at all feasible.
In addition, if the Biden administration really wants to accelerate RE transition, EV incentives should only go to those carmakers that have cars ready and able to participate in V2G or V2H and aren’t penalized/warranty voided for doing so. That would create a huge virtual battery.