AES公司解决方案部的副总裁Brett Galura 9月20日表示，AES公司向El Paso电力公司提交了一个方案，通过建设一套100MW的储能系统，来满足El Paso电力公司近期出现的峰值电力需求。
这个100MW的储能系统由两个分别为50MW的储能单元组成，总共可以存储4小时的电能，El Paso电力公司表示，根据电力供应方以及需求方的建议，在2014年到2015年间，夏天60-100MW的调峰容量将能很好的满足需求，2016年，这一数值将是160-200MW。
An AES Corp. subsidiary is proposing what would be one of the largest battery storage projects in the U.S. The project would provide peaking power for El Paso Electric Co.
In response to El Paso Electric's recent request for proposals for peaking capacity, AES Energy Storage submitted a bid to partially meet the utility's demands through the construction of a 100-MW battery storage project, AES Vice President of Solution Development Brett Galura said Sept. 20.
The 100 MW would come in the form of two 50-MW facilities that would store four hours of energy. El Paso Electric said it is seeking supply-side and demand-side proposals that best meet its peaking capacity need of 60 MW to 100 MW during its summer hours in 2014 and 2015 and 160 MW to 200 MW in 2016.
AES has proposed 2016 as the start date for the battery storage project, but the dates are flexible. The facilities could come online as early as 2014, Galura said. "We gave El Paso the options to bring one or both of those systems forward to the date they wanted," he said. Construction would take about a year.
AES split the project into two parts to alleviate pressure on El Paso Electric's transmission system. Two locations on the utility's system would postpone the need for future transmission system upgrades, he said.
While the company did not release a cost estimate for the project, Galura said AES' proposal can economically compete with proposals for new natural gas-fired peakers. "It provides a number of benefits that we think are unique to storage," he said. In an often parched region of the country, the storage project would require no use of water.
Also, unlike conventional peaking generating plants, the project would dispatch power that was initially generated at off-peak times and stored in the batteries for use when demand is high. "Charging in the ultra-off-peak hours and delivering energy in the peak hours is a serious cost advantage," Galura said.
The company is also proposing a tolling arrangement in which El Paso Electric can dispatch the power at its choosing but does not own the project outright.
A 100-MW project might raise eyebrows for a type of energy storage that is usually under 50 MW. For example, earlier in 2011, Duke Energy Corp. announced plans to build a 36-MW battery storage system linked to a wind facility in Texas.
AES Energy Storage itself has only 24 MW of storage resources in operation, according to its website. A 32-MW device linked to AES' Laurel Mountain wind turbine project in West Virginia will soon add to that number.
According to Galura, the fact that the Texas proposal is much larger than anything the company has pursued is a sign of where the battery storage industry is going. "Over time, the technology has come down in price and is becoming more adopted," he said.
The size also is a result of the ambitions of the project. Smaller projects, such as the Laurel Mountain device, are aimed at backing up intermittent generation sources such as wind and as such are designed to work in tandem with specific generation units. In contrast, the proposal for El Paso Electric would provide peaking power for the utility's system. "We think that this is an appropriate size for a peaking power application," Galura said.
El Paso Electric is expected to announce a "short list" of potentially successful bidders on Oct. 7. The tentative date for execution of a contract is Nov. 18.