Greensmith Energy sets record for quickest delivery with first commissioned Aliso Canyon ESS

Energy storage software and service provider Greensmith Energy has completed and connected its 20MW energy storage system at the AltaGas Pomona Energy Facility in California, in response to the four-month long gas leak at Aliso Canyon, California.

The leak caused power outage concerns, with government officials initiating an emergency storage tender in response.

Greensmith’s project set what it claims to be an industry record for its rapid turnaround of the design, integration and installation of the system in under four months. The system constitutes North America's largest battery storage facility, comprised of 12,240 lithium-ion batteries in 1,020 racks. It can deliver 80MWh of electricity during peak periods of energy demand to power around 15,000 homes over four hours each day, according to AltaGas.

“With over 50 system deliveries in the last five years, Greensmith has worked not only to advance technology but accelerate time-to-market for grid-scale energy storage systems – with a 100% safety record,” said John Jung, president and CEO of Greensmith.

“Aliso Canyon was a particularly exciting opportunity as it demonstrated our ability to partner with AltaGas and leverage our major OEM relationships to deliver the world’s largest and most complex energy storage systems safely and reliably. We are honoured to be part of this landmark project in California in support of an energy leader, AltaGas.”

“This project had a very tight construction and delivery time frame given the sheer size of the project,” said Jim Murphy, CFO & COO of Greensmith. “We worked seamlessly with our tier one supply chain and established ecosystem to deliver this benchmark project on time. Our system-wide expertise and deep integration experience was paramount to the successful delivery of this installation.”

The Aliso Canyon gas leak posed a new opportunity for US energy storage, with as much as 1.8GW of new storage – mostly from lithium-ion  batteries – expected to come online by 2021, in response, according to GTM Research.

Greensmith’s and AltaGas’ project will join storage projects from the likes of Tesla, General Electric and AES, who also committed to procuring storage to help with power and grid concerns.