EVLO, the battery storage subsidiary of Canadian utility Hydro-Quebec, has signed a Master Supply Agreement (MSA) with China’s Hithium.
Announced last week (24 October), the deal will see manufacturer Hithium provide system integrator EVLO with DC blocks equipped with 314Ah lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells.
The DC blocks will be integrated into EVLO SYNERGY, the 5MWh containerised 20-foot battery energy storage system (BESS) solution launched by the Canadian company in August in response to growing market demand for higher energy density products.
The size of the multi-year deal was not disclosed, but it does include 25-year warranty and performance guarantee packages.
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The pair have just recently commissioned the first project to integrate Hithium’s battery block in EVLO’s packaged solution, at Hydro-Quebec’s 25kV testing facility. An EVLO representative said that the facility is a “live environment that replicates real-world grid conditions, [and] will allow customers to test systems prior to deployment, beyond conventional lab simulations.”
EVLO was launched by Hydro-Quebec in late 2020. The utility serves 4.4 million electric customers and has the Quebec government as its sole shareholder and EVLO is its push into the global battery storage industry, set up to design, sell and operate BESS technology.
Its first projects were in France and Canada but the integrator announced its first 3MW US project in Vermont in mid-2023, and in September this year a portfolio of projects totalling 300MWh in Virginia.
Jonathan Levesque, head of production innovation and technology development at EVLO told Energy-Storage.news in March, explained that the BESS solution the company was marketing at the time was less energy dense than some rivals’ products, in part because the company traded energy density off for improved safety and quality.
However, a mere five months later, EVLOFLEX, at 2.5MWh capacity per 20-foot container, was joined by EVLO SYNERGY on the market, with double the maximum capacity and now with Hithium’s DC block, bringing it broadly in line with solutions from—among others, US and European system integrators Fluence, Powin, Wartsila and GE Vernova, and Chinese manufacturers like CATL and Trina.
At the time of the 5MWh product’s launch, VP sales and business development Martin Rheault said EVLO had continued to make products in line with its commitment to safety and quality.
“What has changed is the evolving market demand and the rapid advancement in the high-density technology,” Rheault said in August.
“EVLO does not compromise on safety and reliability: EVLO SYNERGY, as a high density solution, fully complies to leading industry safety standards.
The deal and commissioned system mark a further step into the North American market for Hithium, which is focused on batteries and solutions for the stationary storage market only, not electric mobility and other sectors like many different providers.
In July, the Chinese company announced a plan to build a factory in Texas, US, with 10GWh annual production capacity, although an expected online date has not been given, nor has the factory’s expected split between producing cells, modules, racks and enclosures or cabinets.
