Utility and IPP Engie has commissioned a 100MW/100MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) while Gore Street has enlisted Nidec as EPC partner for a 75MW project, both in the ERCOT, Texas market.
Engie
The Sun Valley BESS is one of Engie’s largest US energy storage facilities commissioned to-date, and is co-located with the Paris-headquartered independent power producer’s (IPP) 250MW Sun Valley PV plant, operational since last year.
The BESS will provide reliability and ancillary services to grid operator ERCOT to help it integrate growing renewable load in the state.
The ERCOT, Texas market is among the busiest in the US for energy storage deployments and could overtake California for installed capacity next year, when it is set to hit 9.5GW online in September.
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Engie North America has over 2GW of energy storage under construction across the US set to be commissioned by the end of 2024. The firm has acquired big energy storage pipelines in the US recently through the acquisitions of Broad Reach Power in March 2023 and Belltown Power in October 2022.
Gore Street and Nidec announce EPC partnership and investment deal
Also in ERCOT, the UK-listed Gore Street Energy Storage Fund plc has enlisted system integrator Nidec as engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) partner for a 75MW BESS project, called Dogfish.
The deal includes EPC and operation and maintenance (O&M) contracts and is “fully wrapped”, Gore Street said, including warranties for availability and energy capacity. The project is set to come online in December 2024.
Alongside the project deal, Nidec has invested £15.8 million (US$20 million) directly into the Gore Street Energy Storage Fund plc through the issuance of 14,000,000 new shares.
The partnership means Nidec is guaranteed to proceed to the second stage of competitive project bidding for EPC contracts put out by Gore Street, if it can match terms offered by other contenders.
“We are pleased to see a large strategic corporation within the energy storage value chain like Nidec taking a material position in the Company,” said Pat Cox, chair of the Fund’s board.
Nidec has previously provided EPC services for Gore Street’s UK BESS projects Ferrymuir and Stony.
Gore Street recently detailed in its first half results how its non-UK assets are significantly outperforming its UK ones.
1-hour systems in a predominantly 2-hour market
Both Dogfish and Sun Valley are notable for being 1-hour systems in a market where 2-hour is increasingly the norm. This is partially because as ancillary service markets saturate more energy-intensive activities will become a bigger part of the revenue stack.
But the main reason is recent state-of-charge (SOC) for some ancillary services, in particular the new ERCOT Contingency Reserve Service (ECRS), which require a full hour’s charge at the start of each hour of ancillary service contract award.
Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 5th Energy Storage Summit USA, 19-20 March 2024 in Austin, Texas. Featuring a packed programme of panels, presentations and fireside chats from industry leaders focusing on accelerating the market for energy storage across the country. For more information, go to the website.
