SMA Sunbelt battery storage inverters and other equipment onsite at Pelham, a large-scale battery storage project in the UK. Image: Statera.

Reaching high levels of renewables is essential to global decarbonisation efforts. Enabling that means rethinking many of the 20th Century principles around which power grids the world over have been designed. Blair Reynolds, SMA America’s product manager for energy storage, discusses the role inverter-based renewable and storage technologies can play in maintaining grid stability.

There is no arguing that synchronous grid-forming technologies are necessary for renewables to supply the bulk of our baseload generation. The importance of this emerging technology will play a major part in the world’s rapidly accelerating clean energy transition.

A recent study by the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory shows that only 24% of generation projects  seeking interconnection from 2000 to 2015 in the United States were actually built.

That trend appears to be worsening.

With the majority of these projects being renewable or hybrid plants, the trend is troublesome, especially given national and regional climate goals.

Some of these projects were likely never going to pan out, but the overall takeaway remains; interconnection queues are becoming increasingly more congested, and approvals are becoming more difficult. 

Breakdown of spinning reserve physics

Inside Climate News reports that PJM officials have recently proposed a two-year moratorium on new interconnection approvals. 

This is in part the result of trying to reach high levels of renewable generation connected to a 20th century bulk power system. This is a system designed around the capabilities and behavior of synchronous rotating generators, whose common speed of rotation generates the grid AC waveform at a common frequency (i.e. 60 Hz).

Grid frequency can be simply described as a measure of the balance of electricity supply and demand across the network.

The concept of synchronous generators working together in an electrical grid. Image: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Nearly all inverter-based resources in service today are grid-following assets, and that means they rely on fast synchronisation with the external grid to tightly control their active and reactive current outputs. If these inverters cannot remain synchronised during grid events or under challenging network conditions, they are unable to maintain controlled, stable output.

Quite simply, we cannot reach 100% renewable generation without modifying the behaviour of a significant number of large-scale, inverter-based resources to mimic the behaviour of conventional synchronous rotating generators.

The deployment of inverter-based resources (i.e. wind, solar & storage) will continue to be a significant component of new generating resource additions in order for governments to reach their climate goals. As a result of the evermore inverter-based generation interconnecting to the bulk power system, the 20th century electric power grid will experience increased strain.

Key metrics

There are two key metrics which are commonly used by planners, manufacturers, and developers to obtain a high-level understanding of a localised power system’s strength and resiliency. Those are short circuit ratio (SCR) and inertia.

Short circuit ratio (SCR)

At a high level, SCR is used to describe the grid ‘strength’ at the point of generator interconnection – meaning how likely is it that the operation of the inverter-based resource itself will impact the stability of the grid.

The industry has seen such examples today, where utility-scale project developers wishing to interconnect inverters are denied approval, due to fears of destabilising an already ‘weak’ power grid. These ‘weak’ parts of the bulk power system are generally described as having low short circuit strength relative to the size of the (proposed) interconnected inverter-based resources.

This description of the electrical system strength refers to the sensitivity of the grid voltage at point of interconnection to fluctuations in a current injection coming from the inverter.

For comparison, in a ‘strong’ system, voltage and power factor are relatively insensitive to changes in current injection from the inverter-based resource, while this sensitivity is higher in a ‘weak’ system which could result in stable operation of the inverter. These ‘weak’ areas could be a location with relatively sparse transmission and few synchronous generating resources nearby. 

Furthermore, the existence of a high amount of grid-following inverter-based resources connected to the system can exacerbate the situation. SCR is routinely applied as a critical criterion in the decision-making process for interconnection studies of new renewable projects.

Inertia

Inertia, conversely, refers to the natural resistance of the system to changes in frequency which could drop if a large power plant or transmission fails.

It’s the inertia within the system which gives the power grid time to rebalance supply and demand by reducing the rate of change off frequency following an unexpected event. Inertia is an excellent indicator of the resiliency of the system to sudden changes.

These are the challenges we face with the wide scale adoption of grid-following inverter-based technologies.

What if inverters could literally inject strength and resiliency into the electric system thereby leaving the electric grid in better condition as a result? Wouldn’t that drastically help overcome the oppositions and concerns associated with interconnecting terawatts of new renewable generation on already strained electrical systems?

Using advanced power electronics and control mechanisms, inverter-based resources including wind and solar (when ideally paired with storage) can quickly detect frequency deviations and respond to system imbalances.

Tapping into electronic based resources for this ‘fast frequency response’ can enable response rates many times faster than traditional mechanical response from conventional generators, thereby reducing the need for inertia.

Synchronous grid-forming inverters can even provide inertia as needed by emulating the physical properties of rotating generators. The result is an injection of strength by increasing SCR. Synchronous grid-forming inverter-based generators can become a drop-in substitution for conventional generation assets in our bulk power system.

Image: NREL.

By emulating the physical properties of rotating synchronous generators through tight software control, grid-forming inverters can essentially replace rotating mass on the bulk power system. 

Here is a simple analogy to explain the situation: Electrical generation today could be compared to tractor-trailer truck driving down the highway. Imagine the truck and its engine represent the large rotational generators that are used to generate the grid waveform. The trailer in this analogy is the aggregate of the inverter-based resources being dragged along for the ride.

Now imagine that the trailer is getting bigger and heavier while simultaneously the truck’s engine is beginning to lose horsepower and torque. Naturally, the towing speed would suffer as a result. The continuation of these trends simply would not be sustainable or productive. This is like the situation facing our electric grids, except that the electric grid can only slow a relatively small amount before it risks catastrophic collapse. 

What can be done?

Imagine if the trailer could push itself and thus reduce the load on the truck towing it along. That’s essentially what synchronous grid-forming technology can do for the electrical grid.

Case study: Cape Cod Energy Storage Facility

Late in 2021, SMA commissioned a first-of-its-kind, 57.6 MW synchronous grid-forming energy storage facility which would not have been allowed to interconnect otherwise.

During the interconnection study review, the ISO recognized that the SCR at the point of interconnection was extremely low (

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President Joe Biden

Executive Order 14017 (E.O.), America’s Supply Chains, signed one year ago, ordered a review of vulnerabilities in our critical mineral and material supply chains within 100 days. In June, the Biden-Harris Administration released a first-of-its-kind supply chain assessment that found our over-reliance on foreign sources and adversarial nations for critical minerals and materials posed national and economic security threats.

President Biden is meeting with administration and state partners, industry executives, community representatives, labor leaders and California Gov. Gavin Newsom to announce major investments in domestic production of key critical minerals and materials, ensuring these resources benefit the community, and creating good-paying, union jobs in sustainable production.

Critical minerals provide the building blocks for many modern technologies and are essential to our national security and economic prosperity. These minerals – such as rare earth elements, lithium and cobalt – can be found in products from computers to household appliances. They are also key inputs in clean energy technologies like batteries, electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels.

As the world transitions to a clean energy economy, global demand for these critical minerals is set to skyrocket by 400-600% over the next several decades, and, for minerals such as lithium and graphite used in electric vehicle (EV) batteries, demand will increase by even more – as much as 4,000%. The U.S. is increasingly dependent on foreign sources for many of the processed versions of these minerals. Globally, China controls most of the market for processing and refining for cobalt, lithium, rare earths and other critical minerals.

In addition to working with partners and allies to diversify sustainable sources, the reports recommended expanding domestic mining, production, processing and recycling of critical minerals and materials – all with a laser focus on boosting strong labor, environmental and environmental justice, community engagement, and Tribal consultation standards.

President Biden is announcing that the Department of Defense’s Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment program has awarded MP Materials $35 million to separate and process heavy rare earth elements at its facility in Mountain Pass, Calif., establishing a full end-to-end domestic permanent magnet supply chain. Paired with this catalytic public funding announcement, MP Materials will announce it will invest another $700 million and create more than 350 jobs in the magnet supply chain by 2024. Currently, China controls 87% of the global permanent magnet market, which are used in EV motors, defense systems, electronics and wind turbines.

Berkshire Hathaway Energy Renewables (BHE Renewables) will announce that this spring, they will break ground on a new demonstration facility in Imperial County, Calif., to test the commercial viability of their sustainable lithium extraction process from geothermal brine as part of a multibillion-dollar investment in sustainable lithium production over the next five years. If successful, this sets the company a path towards commercial scale production of battery grade lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate by 2026. Imperial Valley contains some of the largest deposits of lithium in the world. Once at scale, BHE Renewables facilities could produce 90,000 metric tons of lithium per year.

Redwood Materials will discuss a pilot, in partnership with Ford and Volvo, for collection and recycling of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries at its Nevada based facilities to extract lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite. This builds upon Redwood’s recent announcements including a joint venture with Ford to build a recycling facility in Tennessee and its intention to begin construction on a new cathode manufacturing facility in Nevada in 2022.

Secretary Granholm will discuss DOE’s first-of-its-kind $140 million demonstration project funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) to recover rare earth elements and critical minerals from coal ash and other mine waste, reducing the need for new mining. This project will deliver on the work of the Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization by creating good-paying manufacturing jobs in legacy coal communities.

She will also discuss $3 billion in BIL funding to invest in refining battery materials such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite, and battery recycling facilities, creating good-paying clean energy manufacturing jobs.

MP Materials recently announced construction of a rare earth metal, alloy and magnet manufacturing facility in Texas and a long-term supply agreement with General Motors to power the motors in more than a dozen of GM’s EV models. Production will begin next year, with capacity to produce enough magnets to power 500,000 EV motors annually.

In addition to BHE Renewables, Controlled Thermal Resources (CTR) and EnergySource Minerals have established operations in Imperial County to extract lithium from geothermal brine. GM will source lithium for EV batteries from CTR. The companies are also working with the state-authorized Lithium Valley Commission to develop a royalty structure that would invest profits from their operations in infrastructure, health, and educational investments for the residents of the surrounding region.

Tesla intends to source high-grade nickel for EV batteries from Talon Metals’ Tamarack nickel project under development in Minnesota. Talon Metals and the United Steelworkers (USW) have established a workforce development partnership for the project to train workers on next-generation technologies in the local community and from mining regions in the U.S. facing declining demand. As part of this partnership, Talon has agreed to remain neutral in any union organizing efforts by USW.

Ahead of the one-year anniversary of E.O. 14017 this Thursday, the administration has taken action across the federal government to secure reliable and sustainable supplies of critical minerals and materials, while also upholding the administration’s labor, environmental and environmental justice, and equity priorities.

This year, the Mining Law of 1872 turns 150. This law still governs mining of most critical minerals on federal public lands. The Department of Interior (DOI) announced it has established an Interagency Working Group (IWG) that will lead an administration effort on legislative and regulatory reform of mine permitting and oversight. The IWG released a list of Biden-Harris Administration fundamental principles for mining reform to promote responsible mining under strong social, environmental and labor standards that avoids the historic injustice that too many mining operations have left behind. The IWG will deliver recommendations to Congress by November. They will also host extensive public input and comment sessions to ensure an inclusive process, and will work with the relevant agencies to initiate updates to mining regulations by the end of the calendar year.

Pursuant to the Energy Act of 2020, DOI will update its federal list of critical minerals, listing minerals essential to economic or national security and vulnerable to disruption. To focus the work of federal agencies on sourcing critical minerals, the administration will direct agencies to prioritize the production and processing of minerals necessary to produce key products like batteries, semiconductors and permanent magnets, consistent with our strong environmental, social and labor principles. DOE, DOD and the Department of State signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to better coordinate stockpiling activities to support the U.S. transition to clean energy and national security needs. In October, President Biden streamlined the National Defense Stockpile by signing E.O. 14051 to delegate authority release of strategic and critical materials to the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment.

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Catalyst Power Holdings LLC, an integrated provider of cleaner energy solutions for the commercial and industrial sector, is launching their ecommerce dashboard for commercial and industrial energy management. The new dashboard utilizes a proprietary technology platform to allow businesses and energy consultants to choose a range of cleaner energy solutions, including custom-priced energy service, connected microgrids and community solar. In addition, companies can access financing options for onsite solar options.

Catalyst Power provides cleaner energy options that allow companies to reduce energy costs, access new revenue streams, meet sustainability goals and ensure energy resilience. With the launch, Catalyst Power now provides a direct-to-consumer online option that allows customers to review and choose options at their own pace.

“Businesses have more energy choices and options than ever before,” says Gabriel Phillips, CEO of Catalyst Power Holdings. “Choice creates opportunities to save money, lock in cost certainty, deliver on ESG goals, and think creatively. Our dashboard helps businesses understand their options and simplify their decisions. The commercial and industrial energy market has been underserved for too long. They are an important part of the economy that deserves access to all the benefits of cheaper, cleaner energy – we’re here to help them.”

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ConnectDER, a company that enables utilities and homeowners to expand access to distributed energy resources (DERs), is launching availability of its Solar Collar for new residential solar installations in Nebraska.

ConnectDER’s simple, affordable meter collar can now be used in solar installations throughout Nebraska Public Power and Omaha Public Power District areas. The ConnectDER Solar Collar is a UL-Listed meter collar that enables rapid interconnection of grid-ready residential PV systems.

“Nebraskans deserve simple, low-cost solar energy,” says ConnectDER CEO Whit Fulton. “They’ll be joining us in building a future where clean distributed energy resources are a core component of a robust, reliable electric power system.  Utilizing our Solar Collars will reduce the cost of installation, make interconnection safer, and enable more distributed clean energy resources on the grid.”

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Standard Solar has acquired a 4.69 MW solar and 4 MWh storage project in the Massachusetts town of Plymouth from EDF Renewables North America. The project received an award from the state’s Solar Massachusetts Renewable Targets (SMART) program, which provides incentives for solar and storage projects.

Located in Acton, Mass., on land owned by the Acton Water District, the Lawsbrook Solar + Storage system is expected to generate 5,866 MWh of clean energy each year. The project is built over the W.R. Grace Superfund Site and was awarded by way of an RFP to EDF Renewables in 2018. This project makes complimentary use of one of the district’s active groundwater well fields, which serves as part of the town’s drinking water supply. The property hosting the project is previously disturbed land from gravel extraction and is encompassed by the larger W.R. Grace Superfund Site. Due to the various environmental sensitivities on the site, permitting the project entailed receiving approvals at various levels of the federal, state and local governments.

“Standard Solar is a leader in forwarding the clean energy movement throughout the nation,” says Eric Partyka, director of business development at Standard Solar. “Adding this solar+storage project to our existing portfolio in Massachusetts underscores our rapid growth. It’s always significant when we connect with a great partner like EDF Renewables and acquire projects that are helping a town like Plymouth and the Acton Water District to capitalize on the multiple benefits of a solar and storage system.”

Standard Solar currently owns and maintains nearly 20 MW in Massachusetts and 280 MW of commercial and community solar projects throughout the United States.

“The Acton Water Solar + Storage project is the first of two projects that EDF Renewables has had the privilege to partner with the Acton Water District on,” states Peter Bay, associate director of business development for EDF Renewables. “We are thrilled to see the project come to fruition, despite numerous permitting and interconnection challenges, and begin conveying benefits to the District and Town of Plymouth. The Acton Water District team have been fantastic partners on the project and have provided ample support in ensuring it’s a successful endeavor. We’re appreciative to have a reputable partner in Standard Solar as the long-term owner of the site.”

“After a few years of hard work by all involved, we are extremely excited to have this renewable energy project coming online,” comments Christ Allen, Acton Water District’s district manager. “In the water supply industry, we keenly understand the impacts of global climate change, and the role that reliance on fossil fuels plays. We’re committed to do our part by lowering our carbon footprint, as water and wastewater treatment are very energy intensive processes. Partnering with EDF Renewables, such a knowledgeable, experienced company, has given us a great deal of peace of mind endeavoring into technology where we have no experience.”

The SMART Program was created in 2016 by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources and is a long-term sustainable solar incentive program designed to advance cost-effective solar development in the state. The new Lawsbrook solar and storage project will help the Commonwealth of Massachusetts reach its Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard as well as their recently codified 2030 and 2050 goals for a statewide clean energy economy.

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Solar Media deputy editor Molly Lempriere moderated the session. Image: Solar Media Events via Twitter.

Standalone storage, demand from commercial and industrial (C&I) customers and new types of grid services will increasingly help drive growth in energy storage in the coming years, but the future mix between battery-based and alternative storage types is still unclear.

That is according to speakers at the Energy Storage Summit 2022 in London, speaking on the ‘What Role Will Storage Play in Filling the Fossil Fuel Retirement Gap?’ panel this morning, chaired by Molly Lempriere, deputy editor of Solar Media titles Current± and Solar Power Portal.

David Post, Head of e-Storage Solutions for the energy transition arm of Italian Enel Group, Enel X, alluding to its recent project with a large oil refinery in Ontario, Canada, said:

“Industrial customers are very interested in how they can become more sustainable, especially in jurisdictions which have a tariff structure to allow you to optimise your energy bill,” he said, adding that energy storage projects for reducing peak charges could have a payback time of just four to five years.

James Li, technical lead for energy storage systems (ESS), at solar inverter manufacturer and energy storage system integrator Sungrow, said that the growing realisation that batteries have numerous roles other than backup power was particularly helping drive demand. He says colocation with solar is a big driver in both Sungrow’s grid-scale and residential segments.

Terry Chen, Head of Overseas Energy Storage Business for Trina Storage agreed, saying that 60% of its market in China and the US is from solar-plus-storage, which he said is more economical than pure solar.

But it is changing, he said: “In the future, we see the standalone storage format as the main one in China and the US as well. People are learning more and more about what they can do with standalone energy storage.”

“But right now, in China energy storage is not cost-competitive compared with other energy sources. We’re aiming for it to be by the end of 2023.”

Dispatchable energy storage = fewer fossil fuel resource requirements

Broadening the discussion around cost performance, Ben Guest, Managing Director at Gresham House said that energy storage needs to be compared with the flexibility provided by other assets like natural gas.

“The evidence is strong that the ability to have dispatchable energy storage that doesn’t require bringing on fossil fuel generation is a pretty important driver and cost driver for the energy storage business case,” he said.

Dr. Neville Towers, Director of Wholesale Markets Optimisation for EDF, said: “There’s a lot of new assets entering the market and making great returns. Dynamic Containment has been great and it’s evolved over time. Initially you committed to a day but now it’s four-hour chunks.”

However, Guest added, there was a clear limit to the depth of the Dynamic Containment market.

The discussion moved on to longer duration storage including non-battery-based technologies.

Enel X’s David Post was sceptical of the business case of pumped hydro (PHES) in most cases while EDF’s Neville Towers called for new thinking around supporting longer duration battery assets that system operators will increasingly need.

Post added that he wished to see more international norms for energy storage, which would help foster communications between different stakeholders along the value chain. He also raised the potential of e-mobility and storage converging to the point where electric vehicles could provide flexibility to the market when not being used for transport.

Guest commented: “Battery energy storage does not solve the whole problem. There will be multiple 100 hour events where batteries can’t run. I think in the future we’ll have natural gas and carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS). Unsure about hydrogen. Scrubbing emissions from gas is quite proven, for example.”

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Another Engie NA solar project, Bluestone, located in Mecklenburg County, Va.

Infrastructure and Energy Alternatives Inc. (IEA) has been awarded contracts to construct two solar projects in Virginia with a total contract value of $109 million. ENGIE North America (ENGIE) has awarded the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to IEA Constructors, a wholly owned subsidiary of IEA. 

Powell’s Creek Solar is a 70 MW AC solar project on 495 acres in Halifax County, Va. Construction of the solar photovoltaic (PV) generation facility commenced in January 2022 with a targeted completion date in December 2022. ENGIE will furnish the 176,000 solar modules, while IEA will self-perform all the EPC requirements of the $66 million project, including all civil, mechanical and electrical work. 

Sunnybrook Solar is a 51 MW AC solar project in Scottsburg County, Va. Construction on the $43 million project commenced in January 2022, with a targeted completion date in December 2022. IEA’s scope of work includes the installation of over 106,000 owner-furnished modules across the 305-acre project and full balance-of-system EPC construction, including all civil, mechanical and electrical work.

With more than 1,400 MW of installed solar capacity throughout the state, Virginia ranks as the fourth largest solar energy producer in the United States. In 2020, the state passed the Virginia Clean Economy Act, landmark legislation that requires the state’s largest utilities to deliver electricity from 100% renewable sources by 2050.

“We are excited to once again partner with ENGIE, a global leader in clean energy transition,” says Joe Broom, IEA’s senior vice president of solar construction operations. “We are proud to support the State of Virginia’s commitment to investing in clean energy technologies, including utility scale solar developments capable of supporting the growing requirements of the electricity grid for years to come.”

“The journey of the energy transition is built one project at a time, one community at a time and safely every time – collaborating with IEA brings our shared focus on safety and opportunity to support economic growth in the community,” states Mathew Magdanz, VP of engineering and optimization for ENGIE North America. “As the long-term owner and operator of projects we recognize that the construction phase underpins the long-term success of our operations.”

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Panellists at a session as the Energy Storage Summit returned for its 7th year. Image: Solar Media Events via Twitter.

Investors are becoming increasingly comfortable with energy storage as an asset class but numerous regulatory and market design hurdles remain across European markets, according to panellists at the Energy Storage Summit 2022.

All agreed that the UK market was far ahead of its European peers on facilitating the growth of energy storage, in the Summit’s opening panel sessions in London this morning.

“It’s a very mature market with a lot of capital going in. There was something like 16MW of storage in 2015 and today we’re at around 2GW. The market designs and incentives are clearly in place in the UK market and we need to translate those learnings to European markets,” said Chris Morrison, managing director of Macquarie Capital’s Green Investment Group.

He added that this shouldn’t be surprising considering that vibrant energy storage markets tend to be island nations with big renewable energy sources.

The Netherlands is something of an inverse case in point, where huge congestion on the grid is a big barrier to new energy storage and solar projects, said Heleen Groenenberg, Senior Electricity Market Developer at TenneT, the Dutch grid operator with a presence in Germany too.

Storage often also finds itself treated like a power generator and subsequently shut out of the market. TenneT demands 24-hour availability for frequency regulation services and Groenenberg hopes that piecemeal exceptions to this start being implemented on a regular basis. “Hopefully that will grow the market,” she added.

One positive recent change in the Netherlands has been the removal of double taxation on importing and exporting power to the grid, although double grid charges remain.

Ezrio Ravaccia, CFO/CIO at Solar Ventures and Solar Ventures Capital, described Italy as an ‘early stage market’ with massive price differentials across regional energy markets.

“The key points are a need for contractual revenues and the bankability that can give you. It is currently really difficult to model investment in storage. The money and technology is there, it’s just about finding the right way to be able to invest into this asset class, and part of that is the debt-equity ratio where we still need to find a reasonable balance. I do see a big increase in the sector in the coming years in Italy,” he said.

Continuing Ravaccia’s point, Chris Morrison added that regulatory structures are a key thing holding back lots of European markets.

“That’s a big problem in Italy where it’s hard to get projects accepted,” he added, to strong agreement from Ravaccia.

On the subject of bankability, he added: “Investors need to get comfortable with 20-25 year financial models and, it might sound glib, but if you don’t have third-party consultants to forecast revenues it’s hard to convince your investment committee. It really is one of the most fundamental things,” highlighting the award of five-year Fast Reserve frequency regulation contracts in Italy as a positive sign.

“You also need your energy storage to be able to stack revenues and the UK government has been good at facilitating this,” he added.

The discussion then moved on to the colocation of energy storage with other technologies, predominantly solar power. Ravaccia said that colocation was the most effective way to grow in the Italian market and sees it growing in importance in the coming years and months.

Groenenberg said that colocation of solar and storage could allow another 7.5GW of solar power capacity in the Netherlands, equivalent to 1.5-2 megatonnes of carbon reduction. Though he said there was a healthy debate around the extent to which you specifically subsidise colocated storage.

Groenenberg sounded a note of caution that system operators do not view storage as an objective but rather a means to an end, and that batteries can often enlarge the challenge by, for example, all feeding in and charging from the grid at the same time.

Ravaccia expects the cost of battery energy storage, currently around €800k (US$906k)/MW, to fall in the coming years although not immediately. He had the same answer to a question around the storage capabilities of green hydrogen but said that it would be competing with numerous new technologies and the winner was not clear at this point.

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LG Electronics Inc.‘s board of directors has voted to close the company’s solar panel business. The decision comes as uncertainties in the global solar panel business continue to increase due to a variety of contributing factors, including the intensification of price competition and the rising cost of raw materials, the company states.

LG will continue to stand behind its solar brand and the company will maintain support for customers of existing LG solar panels for a period of time after the business’s closure has been completed. Solar panel production itself will continue until the second quarter this year to maintain adequate inventory for future service support.

The closure of the solar panel business is expected to be completed by June 30. LG’s Business Solutions (BS) Company, which operates the solar panel business, will reorganize its portfolio around information technology and information display.

Going forward, LG will leverage its renewable energy expertise to concentrate on growth sectors and plug into a new era of sustainability through rapidly evolving products and solutions including energy storage system, energy management solutions and other yet-to-be-announced advancements.

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Imperial Oil’s refinery at Sarnia where the battery storage is being built. Image: Enel X/Imperial Oil.

The energy transition arm of Italy’s Enel Group has started construction on a 20MW/40MWh behind-the-meter (BTM) battery energy storage system (BESS) at Imperial Oil’s petrochemical complex in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada.

Enel X will build, own and operate the BESS and use its Distributed Energy Resources (DER) Optimization software (DER.OS) to maximise the value of the project, including peak prediction services. The company has not revealed when it expects the system to be completed or go online.

It says that Imperial will be able to charge the BESS at night when the electricity grid is mainly powered by wind, nuclear and hydro sources and draw on the battery during peak demand periods when the mix of natural gas production is generally higher.

Enel X’s Head of North America Surya Panditi and Ontario’s Minister of Energy Todd Smith both said it would be the largest behind-the-meter battery storage system in North America once complete.

“Large energy users are turning to battery storage to reduce their demand on the grid, lower their energy costs, improve sustainability, and deliver economic value to a company’s bottom line,” Panditi commented.

Demand response programme

Enel X will enrol the BESS onto Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator’s (IESO) demand response programme. The programme allows commercial & industrial (C&I) customers with high power needs to reduce peak demand charges as well as help the capacity needs of the grid.

One of IESO’s peak demand charges is the Global Adjustment (GA), which goes on all electricity consumers’ bills to cover generating and energy conservation programmes. Users with peak usage over 500kW can participate in the Industrial Conservation Initiative (ICI). The ICI allows them to reduce their demand during peak periods of electricity consumption on the grid.

Enel X’s DER.OS will predict when those peak periods are and switch to energy stored in the battery instead of using the grid in those periods. IESO currently lists three providers as the initial suppliers of power for the demand response pilot: Tembec Industries, Enershift and HCE Energy. Enel X was the first provider to join a similar, new programme in Australia in October last year.

‘..the largest behind-the-meter battery storage in North America’

The claim that this project at Sarnia will be the largest behind-the-meter storage in North America may be disputed as a 240MWh system being built by technology infrastructure company Switch in Nevada, broke ground in July 2020. Albeit that project staked its claim to be part of the largest behind-the-meter solar project in the world, pairing batteries with 127MW of solar PV, rather than a standalone BESS project.

It is fair to say however that BTM systems in North America, particularly south of the border in the US, have tended to be smaller and in some ways Ontario is the leader in this space, given the opportunity it gives large users of power to reduce their costs via the Global Adjustment Charge.

The province has seen some other large BTM systems built for industrial customers, notably including a 10MW/20MW project by developer Convergent Energy + Power, using IHI Inc hardware supplied to an undisclosed customer, also in Sarnia and completed in 2018. The same developer also completed a 10MW BTM project at an oil refinery in Sarnia for Shell the following year.

Others include an 8.9MW/18MWh project by technology company Honeywell, again for an unnamed customer, completed in 2019. Honeywell is also currently delivering battery storage for a 90MW/180MWh portfolio of Ontario behind-the-meter projects with developer Aypa Power (formerly NRStor), albeit this is distributed through a number of separate sites. Honeywell team members discussed that portfolio in a webinar series with Energy-Storage.news last year.

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