Technology group Wärtsilä is to deliver a 70 MW energy storage and energy management system to an undisclosed customer in California.
The energy storage facility will be deployed in the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) energy market and paired with a Wärtsilä GEMS platform. It is expected to start operating in mid-2020 and will help the US state to integrate renewable energy into its grid.
Wärtsilä said in a statement that the GEMS advanced software platform will optimise the deployment and functionality of the customer’s existing renewable energy power system, and will connect the site to the local energy market.
“This sizeable 70 MW project demonstrates the growing value being placed on energy storage; there are no government programs or regulations in place that incentivised this build,” said Risto Paldanius, Business Development Director for Energy Storage & Optimisation at Wärtsilä Energy Business.
The batteries will be based on lithium iron phosphate chemistry, which has “several fundamental safety features” including lower thermal runaway temperature and very low temperature rise rate, Paldanius added.
This project is the first grid-scale energy storage project for the customer and will be Wärtsilä’s largest energy storage deployment tied to a renewable resource in the western United States.
