New York To Get 100 MW Battery Storage

Con Edison, a US-based energy company and 174 Power Global, a solar project development company have struck a deal that will place the largest battery storage project in New York on an industrial site in Astoria, Queens, the batteries will be able to discharge 100 megawatts of electricity.

This East River Energy Storage System will hold enough electricity to run more than 16,000 homes for several hours during a summer heat wave.

174 Power Global, with its specialization in renewable energy projects, will build and own the battery system. They won the project by responding to a request for proposal that Con Edison issued in July 2019.

Tim Cawley, the president of Con Edison stated that the utility-scale battery storage will play a vital role in New York’s clean energy future as it will help to maximize the benefit of the wind power being developed offshore,  and will help in displacing some fossil fuel-fired generation when the demand for power will be highest.

Mark Chambers, director of Sustainability for New York City appreciated the idea of expanding battery storage and this can be useful in meeting the energy demands while combating climate change.

Advancing Clean Energy Future

The New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act sets a goal of 70 percent of the state’s power coming from renewable sources by 2030 and recognizes the need to use energy storage to balance the intermittency of renewable generation.

 Contract structure

The companies have a seven-year contract under which Con Edison will bid power from the battery system into the state’s wholesale market. At the end of the contract, 174 Power Global will dispatch the power into the state’s bulk power transmission system. Con Edison and its customers will also get the benefit of the revenues from the sales into the wholesale market during the contract term.

174 Power Global is responsible for obtaining the permits to build and operate the project by the end of 2022. The batteries will be in dozens of containers and connected to a nearby Con Edison transmission substation. The batteries will produce no emissions and very little noise.

Con Edison’s past initiatives

Apart from the upcoming battery storage plant, Con Edison has a 2-megawatt battery system in Ozone Park, Queens to support reliability at times of high demand. Under a demonstration project, Con Edison and GI Energy have placed a 1-megawatt storage unit at a customer site on the North Shore of Staten Island. It has worked with Enel X to install a 4.8-megawatt battery system which is the largest in New York City in Brooklyn’s East New York neighborhood.