System integrator Ameresco has completed and put into commercial operation eight battery energy storage system (BESS) projects for US utility United Power in Colorado.
The projects are located at eight different substations operated by the utility and total 78.3MW of power and 313.34MWh energy storage capacity, an average discharge duration of four hours.
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Ameresco and United Power will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the completed projects later in July, Ameresco said in a media advisory last week (18 July). The two firms entered into the contract for the projects around a year ago, reported by Energy-Storage.news at the time.
The system integrator built four BESS arrays of 11.75MW each, and another four of 7.84MW each, at eight substations across Adams, Broomfield and Weld counties owned by United Power, a not-for-profit electric cooperative.
United Power will use the BESS to balance its load as it brings more renewables online, particularly during peak demand periods. The utility is active across Colorado’s Northern Front mountain range, and is one of around 50 smaller utilities that operate in areas not covered by the state’s two large investor-owned utilities, Xcel Energy and Black Hills Energy.
The utility was behind what was, at the time, Colorado’s largest BESS, when independent power producer (IPP) Engie deployed a 4MW/16MWh system for it using Tesla Megapacks in 2018.
Ameresco, meanwhile, is active in the US grid-scale BESS market as a system integrator across numerous projects but is also looking to move into owning its own projects, as we covered last year in a Premium piece.
Its most notable project has been a 2.1GWh order from California utility Southern California Edison (SCE), although that has been beset by delays as recently covered in another piece (also Premium access).
