California is taking no chances on a repeat of last year’s blackouts during the squelching summer heat that plunged millions into darkness.
The state is investing in batteries -- huge batteries large enough and strong enough to sustain a grid powered by renewables.
“This is going to be the preview summer for batteries in California, and we want to make sure this initial chapter is as successful as possible,” Elliot Mainzer, chief executive officer of the California Independent System Operator told Bloomberg.
California is set to add more battery capacity this year than in all of China, according to BloombergNEF.
By August, California plans to have 1,700 megawatts of battery power to keep 1.3 million homes energized.
"If batteries last four hours, then that’s not really going to do the job,” said Kit Konolige, senior analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence. “It’s still somewhat unproven, using batteries for a large portion of capacity.”
Although these batteries are more expensive than “peaker” gas plants, those used as backup when use is escalated, including construction and financing, batteries cost about $125 a megawatt-hour versus $109 for gas, according to BloombergNEF data.
“A peaker runs for a few hours in the evening hours, and then it shuts off, and that’s all it can do,’ said Kiran Kumaraswamy, vice president of market applications at Fluence, an energy storage joint venture of Siemens and AES Corp. “You’ve got to be able to provide that peak capacity but also optimize around how much money you can make at other times.”