Honeywell’s 20 MW ESS For Hecate Energy in New Mexico

Honeywell has confirmed it will supply Hecate Energy with an Energy Storage System (ESS) for a solar park located on the Jicarilla Apache Nation in Northern New Mexico. When completed later this year, the 50-megawatt (MW) solar farm will be capable of supplying enough electricity to power up to 16,000 average New Mexican homes for a year. The project will help meet the state’s decarbonization goals.

Honeywell will deliver a 20MW ESS combined with the Experion® Energy Control System to form a battery-powered platform that integrates asset monitoring, distributed energy resource management, supervisory control and analytics functionality. Collectively, these capabilities will enable Hecate Energy to accurately forecast and optimize energy costs at the site and ultimately support users having access to reliable and cost-effective clean energy.

Honeywell’s ESS claims to allow the asset owner to utilize the ESS for more than one use-case application including peak shaving, backup power generation and demand response programs.

Energy storage will play a critical role as organizations transition to renewable power generation and will be vital to the decarbonization of global power systems. According to a recently published research report by Stanford University, the U.S. power grid could reach 100% renewable power penetration by 2050. This new cost competitive electricity mix would rely largely on solar, wind and hydro development as well as energy storage technology.

States in the US continue to catch up on renewable energy, with latecomers that are well placed especially keen to go for solar+ battery  solutions as prices drop to a level where subsidies are barely needed, when compared to existing sources of power.