Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at a wind farm in New South Wales. Image: Anthony Albanese’s office via Twitter.

Australia’s government has put its support behind two major transmission projects which will interconnect different regions of the country’s grid and increase the utilisation of renewable energy.

The Labor Party, which went into office this year under the leadership of prime minister Anthony Albanese is creating Rewiring the Nation, a AU$20 billion (US$12.6 billion) initiative to modernise the electric grid.

Prior to Labor taking power, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) was tasked by the federal as well as state governments to produce an investment plan. According to AEMO’s estimates, its Integrated System Plan will result in net benefits worth more than double the cost of Rewiring the Nation.

Albanese’s government said Rewiring the Nation offers the lowest-cost pathway to the vision AEMO set out, partnering with transmission companies and offering cheap loans that should enable their projects to go ahead.

Today, low-cost loans were confirmed for the Victoria-New South Wales Interconnector (VNI West) KerangLink project to increase interconnection capacity between the two states, as well as for Marinus Link, a project to connect the island state of Tasmania to Victoria, and therefore to the National Electricity Market (NEM).

There will also be financing available for projects in Tasmania’s Battery of the Nation plan, as well as for development of Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) projects in Victoria.

Battery of the Nation

As reported previously by Energy-Storage.news, the 1500MW Marinus Link subsea interconnector is a key piece of the Battery of the Nation plan. The Tasmanian plan would see new large-scale pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) and wind power plants built in the state, which could be utilised in the NEM.

Tasmania wants to be able to generate twice as much energy as it needs on the island and export the surplus. The previous federal government signed agreements with Tasmania’s state rulers to support the project with AU$75 million funding in April, but today’s pledge from Labor dwarfs that.

As well as a concessional loan for up to 80% of the Marinus Link’s project costs, administered through the national Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the governments of the Commonwealth and Victoria and Tasmania will finance the remaining 20% with equity investment.

There will also be up to AU$1 billion of low-cost loans made to support Battery of the Nation projects, including a large-scale pumped hydro plant and redevelopment of an existing hydroelectric power facility. There will also be further loans to support transmission upgrades within Tasmania.

According to utility Hydro Tasmania, the Marinus Link’s twin 750MW cables will enable the construction of a 750MW, 20-hour (15GWh) PHES plant at Tasmania’s Lake Cethatha.

Victorian Renewable Energy Zones

Today’s announcement will fast-track development of Victorian Renewable Energy Zones (REZ) and offshore wind, with the Victoria and Australian governments signing an agreement today to jointly fund the projects.

Rewiring the Nation will make up to AU$1.5 billion in concessional loans available for REZ projects including offshore wind. Separately, the governments will also support further offshore wind projects.

Meanwhile the CEC will also lend up to AU$750 million towards the cost of the VNI-West KerangLink interconnector, which the governments said will unlock 4,000MW of new power generation by 2028. It will also allow for greater utilisation of the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro power station under construction in New South Wales, with a scheduled operational start date of 2025-2026.  

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Axium Infrastructure and Canadian Solar Inc.‘s subsidiaries Recurrent Energy and CSI Energy Storage, have begun operations for Crimson Storage, a 350 MW / 1400 MWh standalone energy storage project, in California. A fund managed by Axium Infrastructure US Inc. owns 80% of the project and Recurrent Energy, the project developer, retains 20% ownership. CSI Energy Storage was the turnkey system integrator of the project, delivering the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services and will provide long-term operational services for the project.

Sited on public lands in Riverside County, Calif., the Crimson Storage project holds two long-term energy storage contracts with California’s largest utilities, Southern California Edison (SCE) and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). Both contracts are part of reliability procurements directed by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).

SCE has a PPA for 200 MW / 800 MWh with a 14-year and 10-month contract with Southern California Edison under a full tolling agreement. PG&E has a 150 MW / 600 MWh 15-year contract for resource adequacy only. Recurrent Energy and Axium will operate the battery system in the California wholesale power market.

“Crimson Storage is now the largest single phase energy storage project to reach commercial operation in the world and the second largest operating standalone energy storage projects in the world,” says Dr. Shawn Qu, chairman and CEO of Canadian Solar. “Recurrent Energy began developing Crimson Storage and our larger energy storage pipeline in 2015 when no large-scale storage projects yet existed.”

“Last year, we started bringing these projects to fruition also thanks to our CSI Energy Storage team,” Dr. Qu continues. “We celebrate how far we have come in delivering the much-needed flexible generation that will support the U.S. and California’s transformative climate goals. We thank the California Public Utilities Commission, the U.S. Department of the Interior and our partners at Axium Infrastructure for their critical contributions to this project.”

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Hudson Gilmer

National Grid, an investor-owned utility, is installing sensors from LineVision, a provider of non-contact overhead power line monitoring systems, on transmission lines in western New York to increase grid capacity and reduce curtailment of planned renewable generation projects. The effort will be the first instance in New York where Dynamic Line Rating technology will be used to operate transmission lines in real-time, allowing National Grid to further optimize grid performance.

“We are pleased to again work with LineVision to optimize and modernize our network,” says Bart Franey, vice president of clean energy development in New York for National Grid. “As National Grid works to meet ambitious climate goals, we are continuously looking for cost-effective ways to support the integration of renewable generation in New York. Based on our previous experience with LineVision technology, we expect we can unlock additional transmission capacity to help meet those goals. Knowing the rating of the transmission line helps us to understand how much additional power we can transmit, which is critical as we work towards the energy transition.”

LineVision’s LineRate DLR software and sensor platform will be deployed on 115kV transmission lines in upstate New York. For example, one of the lines will transmit power from, among other sources, a 125 MW utility-scale wind energy project providing power to 37,000 households in Chautauqua County, N.Y.  

“National Grid has consistently shown leadership in building a cleaner, more flexible grid and ensuring a seamless path to decarbonization,” says Hudson Gilmer, co-founder and CEO of LineVision. “Throughout several phases of our work with National Grid in both Massachusetts and New York, we have seen outstanding results, including an average increase in transmission capacity of over 30 percent.”

“This project, along with five miles of circuit rebuilds, is projected to reduce curtailments by over 350 MW while increasing capacity by 190 MW,” Gilmer continues. “We will, in essence, have added enough capacity to existing power lines to power some 80,000-100,000 homes. We are thrilled with these developments and are eager to continue our work together.”

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Castillo Engineering has been selected by Solar Generation, an engineering, construction and procurement (EPC) firm, to provide electrical design and engineering for a 75 MW portfolio of 11 community solar projects in New York. Castillo Engineering’s site optimization expertise resulted in significant cost savings for each of these projects, all of which use fixed tilt mounting technology and bifacial solar modules. The majority of the projects are currently under construction and will be completed throughout the remainder of 2022 and 2023.

“We knew we could rely on Castillo Engineering for this portfolio of projects due to their team’s hundreds of megawatts of experience in the New York and Massachusetts markets,” says Zachary Schrowang, Solar Generation’s COO. “Despite the difficult-to-develop land that many of these projects faced, Castillo Engineering has been extremely flexible and worked very closely with us to ensure all deadlines were met. They are an immensely collaborative partner that can also easily and cost effectively handle projects in which the equipment has already been procured.”

This 75 MW portfolio of projects represents Castillo Engineering’s third portfolio of community solar projects completed in New York in 2022 alone. It joins the company’s over 300 utility-scale projects completed to date.  

“Solar Generation is a leader in community solar projects in New York and we are pleased to have been selected by them to utilize our design and engineering expertise to help provide more affordable clean energy for local communities,” comments Christopher Castillo, CEO of Castillo Engineering. “Given our extensive experience in the state spanning over 25 years, and the fact that we manage all of our design and engineering in-house, we were able to work efficiently to ensure maximum cost savings and timely completion for each of these terrain-challenged projects.”

In addition to partnering on this 75 MW portfolio of community solar projects in New York, Solar Generation has also selected Castillo Engineering to provide support on over 10 MW of community solar projects in Illinois.

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Mike Streams

Primergy Solar LLC, a developer, owner and operator of utility and distributed scale solar and storage, has entered a sole battery supply agreement with Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL) for the $1.2 billion Gemini Solar+Storage Project outside of Las Vegas, Nev.

Once completed, Gemini will be one of the largest operational solar + storage projects in the U.S. with a 690 MW AC/966 MW DC solar array and 1,416 MWh storage capability. Earlier this year, Primergy completed a procurement process and selected equipment suppliers and construction partners for the Gemini project.

“With Primergy’s industry-seasoned team, their in-house capability in development, construction and management of long-term assets and CATL’s innovative battery technologies,” says Tan Libin, vice president of CATL. “We believe our cooperation on the Gemini Solar Project will set a great example for large-scale electrochemical energy storage applications, thus promoting global drive towards carbon neutrality.”

Primergy designed a DC coupled system for the Gemini project, which will maximize efficiency from the teaming of the solar array with the CATL storage system. CATL will supply Primergy Solar with EnerOne, a modular outdoor liquid cooling battery energy storage system. With a cycle life of up to 10,000 cycles, the LFP-based battery product will contribute to the operation of the Gemini project. Primergy selected the EnerOne solution for Gemini because it utilizes advanced lithium phosphate chemistry which meets Primergy’s requirements for safe and reliable operations at its sites.

“CATL is a technology leader in the battery industry, and we are pleased to partner with them on the Gemini Project and showcase CATL’s advanced EnerOne storage solution,” states CEO Ty Daul. “The future of our country’s energy reliability and resiliency relies on the mass deployment of battery storage capacity that can supply consistent power back into the grid when it’s needed most. Together with CATL, we are building a market leading and highly sophisticated battery storage system that can capture surplus solar power during the day and store it for use in the early evening after the sunsets in Nevada.”

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AES Andes operates across the mountainous region, including Chile, Argentina & Colombia. Image: Stephan Bachenheimer/World Bank.

AES Andes, a utility operating in South America owned by AES Corporation, has revealed plans to convert 560MW of thermal power generation into a molten salt-based energy storage plant in Chile.

The firm has submitted documents to the website of Chile’s national Environmental Impact Assessment (SEIA) agency outlining the plans.

So-called Project Alba, it would see AES Andes turn its Angamos coal-fired power plant in north Chile – Central Termoeléctrica Angamos (CTA) – into an energy storage unit with 560MW of power output.

The energy storage unit would use a system of salts heated to between 310-560°C, which would then enter a water/salt heat exchanger to release the stored thermal energy, generating steam to move the turbogenerator. The electricity generated could then be injected into the country’s National Electric System.

Its Environmental Impact Statement said the project would need a total investment of US$450 million.

It mentions a ‘cycle’ to heat the salt of 10 hours but it is not clear if this means the system would also have a discharge duration of 10 hours. That would mean a total energy storage capacity of 5,600MWh or 5.6GWh.

The plant would need 700MW to heat the salts to the desired temperature, which would come from renewable energies via the nearby Angamos substation.

The company said the project would contribute to the decarbonisation of Chile’s energy system, by reducing emissions from the plant by 50%.

AES Corporation owns over 98% of the shares of AES Andes and together with Siemens owns a majority of the shares of the largest battery energy storage system integrator Fluence. Fluence typically deploys all of AES’ projects in the Americas but has not ventured outside of battery storage so its potential role in this project is not clear. It could provide its renewable energy optimisation software platform.

Companies which have developed energy storage solutions using salt include Malta Inc and SaltX.

Local outlets have reported that the German Agency for International Cooperation GIZ and Siemens Energy are supporting the project.

AES Andes is currently working on a 112MW/560MWh battery storage project in Chile paired with 253MW of renewable generation from solar PV and wind. Fluence will be supplying battery storage equipment and integration services to that one.

Parent company AES Corporation signed a cooperation agreement with the country’s government during the 2021 COP26 climate talks representing an investment of around US$400 million. One interesting related fact is that AES deployed the world’s first megawatt-scale lithium-ion battery energy storage system (BESS) at a coal power plant in Chile, back in the late 2000s.

The AES Andes filing comes as Chile’s government considers passing major legislation incentivising the deployment of energy storage, as reported by this site earlier this month.

Read the Spanish-language Statement from AES Andes in full here.

Additional reporting by Andy Colthorpe.

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Ed Baine

In its third annual clean energy filing with the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC), Dominion Energy Virginia has proposed nearly two dozen new solar and energy storage projects for Virginia customers. If approved, the projects will provide more than 800 MW of carbon-free electricity.

The proposal includes 10 solar and energy storage projects, totaling nearly 500 MW, which will be owned and operated by Dominion Energy Virginia. The proposal also includes power purchase agreements (PPA) with 13 solar and energy storage projects, totaling more than 300 MW, which are owned by independent developers. The PPAs were selected through a competitive solicitation process.

“These projects are another big step in delivering clean, affordable and reliable energy to our customers,” says Ed Baine, president of Dominion Energy Virginia. “The clean energy transition is bringing jobs and economic opportunity to communities across Virginia, and it’s reducing fuel costs for our customers. That’s a win-win for our customers and the communities we serve.”

Construction of the projects is projected to support nearly 4,800 clean energy jobs and will generate more than $920 million in economic benefits across Virginia. Additional details about the utility-owned projects are below:

The utility-scale solar projects include the 20 MW Bridleton Solar project in Henrico County, acquired from Vega Renewables LLC; the 62 MW Cerulean Solar project in Richmond County, which will be acquired from Strata Clean Energy; the 167 MW Courthouse Solar project in Charlotte County, acquired from NOVI Energy; the 20 MW King’s Creek Solar project in York County, acquired from KDC Solar Virginia; the 60 MW Moon Corner Solar project in Richmond County, developed by Dominion Energy Virginia; the 20 MW North Ridge Solar project in Powhatan County, acquired from North Ridge Powhatan Solar LLC; and the 125 MW Southern Virginia Solar project in Pittsylvania County, acquired from Strata Clean Energy.

The two distributed solar projects include the 3 MW Ivy Landfill Solar project in Albemarle County, which will be acquired from Community Power Group, as well as the 3 MW Racefield Solar project in James City County, acquired from Hexagon.

The utility-scale energy storage project is the 15.7 MW Shands Storage project, located in Sussex County and acquired from East Point Energy.

In addition to SCC approval, the proposed utility-owned projects require local and state permits before construction may begin. If approved, the projects are expected to be completed between 2023 and 2025.

The projects will help meet the requirements of the Virginia Clean Economy Act’s (VCEA) renewable portfolio standard, which requires Dominion Energy Virginia to generate 100% of its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2045. Additionally, two of the projects – Kings Creek Solar and Ivy Solar – will be built on previously developed land in support of the VCEA’s requirement for at least 200 MW of solar on brownfield sites.

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CATL exhibiting its energy storage products at RE+ in Anaheim, California, last month. Image: CATL.

Developer Primergy Solar has entered into a sole battery supplier agreement with lithium-ion battery manufacturer CATL for the Gemini solar-plus-storage project in Nevada, US.

CATL will provide its modular, liquid-cooled energy storage system EnerOne, pictured above, for the storage portion of the project which will total 1,416MWh of capacity. It uses lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells and will accompany a 690 MWac/966 MWdc solar PV array at the site, which is near Las Vegas.

The battery energy storage system (BESS) will be put together by system integrator IHI Terrasun, as announced in March’s selection of the project’s contractors by Primergy. Kiewit Power Constructors Co. will be the US$1.2 billion project’s overall engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) partner.

Ty Daul, Primergy CEO, said: “The future of our country’s energy reliability and resiliency relies on the mass deployment of battery storage capacity that can supply consistent power back into the grid when it’s needed most.”

“Together with CATL, we are building a market leading and highly sophisticated battery storage system that can capture surplus solar power during the day and store it for use in the early evening after the sunsets in Nevada.”

Jamal Burki, IHI Terrasun president, told Energy-Storage.news in an interview earlier this year that Gemini was a “milestone project”, the scale of which showed “how the industry has really come together”.

Nigde, China-headquartered CATL’s EnerOne system has a compact structure which uses 35%less floor space compared to traditional air-cooling products, the company claims. Its battery management system (BMS) can also identify unhealthy battery cells in advance and an intelligent thermal management system can limit temperature difference between cells to improve energy availability.

Quinbrook, Primery’s parent company, sold a stake in the Gemini project to Dutch pension fund asset manager APG last week.

CATL also recently signed a 10GWh, multi-year supply agreement with system integrator FlexGen, which Energy-Storage.news interviewed the latter’s CEO and CFO about whilst at RE+ in California last month.

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The 350MW/1,400MWh BESS project at sunset. Image: Recurrent Energy.

Project partners Canadian Solar and Axium Infrastructure have begun the operation of Crimson Energy Storage, a large-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) in Riverside County, California.

California’s Governor Gavin Newsom was among those celebrating the 350MW/1,400MWh project’s inauguration. Newsom said that it epitomised “California leadership”, including as it does “clean energy, innovation, and economic development through good, union jobs”.

Newsom noted that fast-tracking clean energy projects like Crimson Energy Storage is important to California’s goal of reaching 100% emissions-free electricity by its 2045 target.

The newly operational standalone battery project is among the world’s largest and is in the California desert about 13 miles from the nearest city, Blythe. Sited on public land, it was the first project to be granted approval for construction on public land by the US Bureau of Land Management in the Biden-Harris era.  

It was developed by Canadian Solar’s US project development subsidiary Recurrent Energy. The vertically integrated PV company’s manufacturing and integration arm CSI Solar carried out EPC and system integration duties and will be responsible for long-term servicing.

Recurrent Energy sold off a majority 80% stake in the project to investment management firm Axium in 2021, as reported by Energy-Storage.news at the time, but the developer has retained the remaining 20%.  

The project is Canadian Solar’s first standalone battery project. It had originally been envisaged as a solar-plus-storage facility, like the rest of Recurrent Energy’s pipeline to date, but the solar PV portion was dropped by the time it came to get planning approval for its development on public lands by the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Image: Recurrent Energy.

It has in place long-term tolling agreements with two of California’s main investor-owned utilities (IOUs).

Southern California Edison (SCE) has signed a 14-year and 10-month long contract for 200MW/800MWh, while Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) has a 15-year contract with Canadian Solar and Axium for 150MW/600MWh.

However, the PG&E contract is essentially a capacity payment structure for Resource Adequacy (RA). RA is the main mechanism by which California’s load-serving entities like utilities must maintain reliable and sufficient power supply for their customers. With it being a capacity payment – paid to be available to put energy on the grid – the project’s owners are free to play that portion of the stored energy into CAISO wholesale markets.

Incidentally, the title of world’s biggest battery storage project is currently held by Vistra Energy’s Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility (400MW/1,600MWh), which is also in California. However, unlike Moss Landing, which was built in two phases, Crimson was built as one system throughout.

The chair of the California Energy Commission, David Hothschild, said Crimson is a major milestone for the state.

“Energy storage is an essential building block that supports our transition away from fossil fuels and the Crimson project represents a major milestone in the development of this essential clean energy resource,” Hothschild said.

The project joins California’s fleet of more than 3,000MW of BESS on the CAISO grid, with an increasing portion of assets having four-hour storage duration.

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FirstEnergy Corp. is issuing a request for proposal (RFP) to enter into long-term solar power purchase agreements (PPA) on behalf of four FirstEnergy Pennsylvania utilities: Pennsylvania Power Co. (Penn Power), Pennsylvania Electric Co. (Penelec), Metropolitan Edison Co. (Met-Ed) and West Penn Power Co. (West Penn).

The RFP process will be conducted by a consulting firm, The Brattle Group, and will take place this fall, with qualifying applications due by Nov. 7, 2022, and bids due by Dec. 5, 2022. The utilities are seeking proposals to procure up to 20 MW of solar capacity for long-term renewable energy and associated solar photovoltaic alternative energy credits (SPAEC) from new and in-development solar projects that are classifiable as Tier 1 solar alternative Energy Systems under Pennsylvania’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act.

FirstEnergy’s 10 electric distribution companies serve customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and New York. The company’s transmission subsidiaries operate approximately 24,000 miles of transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions.

Read more about the SPAEC RFP here.

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