Clean energy system integrator Ameresco and utility Southern California Edison (SCE) have agreed on damages to be paid for two battery energy storage system (BESS) projects out of a three-project order, though liquidated damages related to a substantial delay in commissioning are still being negotiated.
SCE will pay Ameresco approximately US$110 million within seven days for the milestone completion of the BESS projects. However, this reflects a set-off of liquidated damages, which are still in dispute, as well as additional work costs.
Final acceptance payments will follow upon the projects’ completion. The third and final project in the order is expected to reach substantial completion in Q4 2024.
Energy-Storage.news first reported that SCE was considering withholding liquidated damages from Ameresco in July this year (Premium access article).
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The projects totalling 537.5MW/2,150MWh were meant to come online in August 2022 but have been delayed by over two years. The contract value for Ameresco was US$1.226 billion.
Ameresco issued SCE with a ‘force majeure’ claim in 2022, citing the shutdown of factories in Beijing due to Covid-19 lockdowns.
The projects are located at three distribution-level substation parcels in SCE’s service territory to provide for the electricity demands in the San Joaquin Valley, the Long Beach area and Rancho Cucamonga and nearby communities. They were specifically procured in light of emergency reliability risks due to extended drought, wildfire and heatwaves in California.
In other BESS activity, Ameresco recently completed 313MWh of projects for a utility in Colorado and landed its first job in the UK, a 624MWh project for developer Atlantic Green.
