Move away from technology-specific
Last week, Southern California Edison (SCE) revealed the winners of a massive 250-megawatt energy storage procurement round, one that could set new standards for incorporating distributed and customer-owned energy assets into grid operations. The procurement represents a potential turning point for utilities.
GTM Research analyst Cory Honeyman commented, "Winning bids from the solicitation include a diverse array of grid-scale storage, behind-the-meter storage, distributed generation PV, thermal storage, demand response, energy efficiency, and natural gas peaker plants. While there have been broad procurement plans in the past, never before has a utility procured such a diverse cross-section of behind-the-meter and grid-scale solutions in one solicitation." Honeyman suggests, "This type of solicitation marks an emerging trend in utility procurement, where utilities move away from technology-specific and RPS-led procurement to a more unified approach in which solar PV, demand response, energy efficiency, and natural gas peakers compete in blended solicitations that are part of long-term procurement plans or integrated resource plans."
Overshadowed perhaps by an epochal change in the way utilities choose and deploy assets, however, was the news that Southern California Edison is procuring what might be the world's largest electrochemical battery (when it is deployed in a few years).
AES Energy Storage was selected to build a 100-megawatt “in-front-of-meter” battery system in SCE’s West Los Angeles Basin region, cementing its lead as the nation’s biggest grid-scale energy storage provider.