News

Largest Ever US Energy Storage Deployment

February 17, 2015 by Jeff Shepard

Alevo Group today announced that it has signed a joint operational agreement with Customized Energy Solutions (CES) to provide 200MW of GridBank-powered frequency regulation services to the wholesale energy market. This represents the largest ever energy storage deployment in the United States of America. CES works with eight Independent Systems Operators (ISOs) in the U.S. and Canada to provide energy services to more than 350 customers. Under the terms of the joint operational agreement, Alevo will work with CES' emerging technologies team to deliver 200MW of energy storage capacity that will be distributed across its operational network.

Energy storage technology is rapidly becoming a mainstream solution for a variety of grid services including frequency regulation, peak-shaving and renewables capture. This has been enabled by the reduction in battery costs, dramatic improvement in battery performance and the redesign of tariff structures to better monetize the benefits of storage technologies.

“This is a critical juncture in the integration of battery storage into the market, transitioning from pilot projects to grid-scale commercially viable installations,” explained Judith Judson, Director of Emerging Technologies, CES. “Storage can provide huge value across the electric grid in terms of increased efficiency and reduced costs, but the challenge has been monetizing the benefits. Alevo is a forward-thinking company with an exciting new battery chemistry and aggressive growth goals.”

Maintaining stable frequency on the grid is a critical challenge for the operators of electricity grids around the world. The provision of fast-reacting power resources, such as the Alevo GridBank, to manage grid stability is a natural fit for energy storage, particularly following federally-mandated changes to energy markets that reward resources that can react at a moment’s notice.

“The major expansion of projects deployed in ISO markets continues to prove the benefits and commercial applications for readiness of energy storage,” explained Jostein Eikeland, CEO, Alevo. “Our operational agreement with Customized Energy Solutions is a milestone for Alevo and testament to the proven performance attributes of our battery technology, which offers a superior value proposition for grid applications. The longevity and performance characteristics of the technology allow us to deploy projects in multiple ISO markets that earlier technologies have not been able to profitably address.”