GlidePath has started operating Byrd Ranch, a 50MW battery energy storage system in Texas, US, which will be optimised by Habitat Energy.
Byrd Ranch is a one-hour system and will provide grid support to the state’s grid operator Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). The main frequency response services in ERCOT are regulation reserve service (RRS) and a sub-set within that group called fast frequency response (RRS-FFR).
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The system is located near the Sweeny Substation in Brazoria County. It consists of 20 inverters totalling 3.62MVA each according to an interconnection agreement from two years ago.
UK-headquartered optimiser Habitat Energy will use its AI-enabled energy bidding and performance optimisation platform to maximise the performance of Byrd Ranch. It is also optimising a 10MW/10MWh project from Glidepath in the same state, as previously reported by Energy-Storage.news.
Energy trading is an increasingly important revenue driver for energy storage projects in most developed markets. None more so than in ERCOT where the energy market is completely decentralised, with no capacity auctions like in the UK or frameworks through which the grid operator mandates utilities to procure power like Resource Adequacy in CAISO (California).
GlidePath and Habitat are both owned by Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners.
“We are proud to help create a more robust and reliable Texas grid by delivering GlidePath’s latest battery storage project so close to a major energy hub in Houston,” said Chris McKissack, CEO of GlidePath.
The firm handled the overall engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the project while IHI Terrasun was the system integrator for the battery energy storage system (BESS).
IHI Terrasun is also providing the BESS for another Quinbrook project, the huge solar-plus-storage Gemini project in Nevada which pairs 690MWac/966MWdc of solar power and a 380MW/1,416MWh BESS.