Primus Power, a leader in grid-scale electrical energy storage, is partnering with the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) to deliver and support two 250-kW EnergyPods as part of a research and demonstration project under BPA’s Technology Innovation Program. BPA is funding roughly one-third of the total project with shared funding from Puget Sound Energy (PSE), the Energy Storage Program of the US Department of Energy (DOE) and Primus. The consortium is studying the potential installation of grid-scale flow batteries in the electric distribution network of PSE, an investor-owned, regulated utility that provides electric and natural gas service to customers within BPA’s transmission and balancing territory.
Utility districts with a high percentage of wind power are seeking opportunities to enhance the integration of variable renewable resources, such as wind and solar. “BPA has been collaborating with others in the power industry to help integrate wind into our region and stretch the benefits of our hydro system,” said Terry Oliver, BPA’s chief technology innovation officer. “We’re looking for innovative solutions that can help us better integrate renewables and improve how we operate the Northwest power grid.”
Patrick Leslie, emerging technologies program manager at PSE, noted that “this project is an opportunity for us to understand the feasibility and cost-benefit of using grid scale battery arrays as well as to get our ‘hands dirty’, so to speak, with an installation.”
DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) will develop models of the storage systems to assess their energy and economic benefits and make recommendations on where they should be placed. After the systems are installed, the PNNL team will also help evaluate their actual performance.
Tom Stepien, CEO of Primus Power, comments, “The Primus team is very fortunate to work with an excellent group of partners on this pioneering effort. Together we will learn the real-world value of storage in the PSE system and demonstrate the differentiation of our energy storage solution.”
— Solar Builder magazine
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