Investor-owned utility (IOU) Southern California Edison (SCE) is seeking regulatory approval of resource adequacy (RA) contracts covering 620MW of BESS capacity across three projects.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) received an advice letter on 5 December 2024 from SCE outlining details of the three agreements that were selected as part of the utility’s phases 2 and 3 Midterm Reliability Request for Offers (MTRRFO).
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Each of the three agreements also includes a financial settlement payment for SCE that approximates revenue for energy arbitrage accounting for the project’s round-trip efficiency (RTE) factor and variable O&M cost.
SCE is requesting that the CPUC approve the three RA agreements no later than 20 February 2025 to ‘maximize the likelihood’ of the projects meeting their contractual online dates.
3.2GWh of LDES from Aypa Power’s Euismod project
The largest of the RA agreements covers a 400MW/3,200MWh portion of Aypa Power’s Euismod lithium-ion BESS project located approximately 16 miles west of Rosamond in Kern County, California.
Under the terms of the agreement, RA will be made available to SCE on 1 June 2028 for 15 years.
The project will connect to the California Independent System Operator (CAISO)-owned grid via SCE’s Whirlwind 230kV substation. Aypa Power has yet to secure an interconnection agreement for the project but submitted a request for its Euismod project with CAISO in April 2021 as part of the system operator’s massively oversubscribed cluster 14 process (queue number 2055).
Although the agreement with SCE is for storage only, Aypa Power’s Euismod CAISO queue request covers 600MW of storage and an equal amount of solar generation.
As reported by Energy-Storage.news earlier this year, Aypa Power’s Euismod project is also contracted with community choice aggregator (CCA) San Diego Community Power (SDCP) under a 15-year Energy Storage Services Agreement (ESSA) covering 200MW/800MWh of energy storage capacity.
SDCP’s portion of the project is also due to come online in June 2028.
Energy storage from Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure
SCE has also negotiated a 15-year RA agreement with the US development arm of UK-based Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure covering 150MW/600MWh of energy storage capacity from the company’s Overnight Solar and Storage project located in Hinkley, San Bernardino County, California.
Although this particular agreement only covers storage, the two parties already have an agreement in place covering offtake for the 150MW of solar generation from the project. According to the recent RA contact, the storage portion of the Overnight project is expected online during April 2027.
Atlantica has already secured an interconnection agreement for its Overnight development for 150MW of solar and storage connecting at SCE’s Kramer 220kV substation (queue number 1774).
This isn’t the first energy storage agreement Atlantica has negotiated in California, with the company announcing during the end of last year that it had secured two PPAs with an “investment grade utility” for its Coso Batteries 1 + 2 projects.
The offtaker wasn’t named at the time, but filings published with the CPUC shortly after the announcement revealed SCE to be the counterparty of these agreements too. The documents reveal the contracts to also be RA with financial settlement agreements lasting for a period of 15 years.
The lithium-ion based Coso batteries are expected to commence delivery during April next year.
Distribution-connected 70MW BESS from Elevate Renewables
The final 15-year agreement covers 70MW/280MWh of BESS capacity from Elevate Renewables’ distribution-connected Pier S Energy Storage project located in Long Beach, Los Angeles County, California.
As reported by Energy-Storage.news back in 2022, the project is located at the site of a methane (natural) gas-fired plant with the BESS expected to utilise existing interconnection, real estate, and site infrastructure.
Elevate Renewables has secured an interconnection agreement for its Pier S project with SCE through the utility’s Wholesale Distribution Access Tariff (WDAT). Interconnection to the distribution system will be via SCE’s Long Beach 66kV substation (queue number WDAT1683).
The lithium-ion BESS facility is due to come online during June 2026.
BESS at the sites of retired fossil fuel plants
Elevate Renewables was formed in 2022 by Arclight Capital Partners to deploy BESS at the site of retiring fossil fuel generating stations.
Since its formation, Elevate Renewables has most notably announced plans for New York City’s “largest” BESS – a 15MW/60MWh standalone battery at the retiring methane (natural) gas-fired Arthur Kill generating station in Staten Island.
According to documents filed with the New York City Industrial Development Agency (NYCIDA), Elevate Renewables expects the project to come online in December 2025 at a cost of US$36.5 million.
