In the first of a two-part blog series on the energy storage response to the infamous Aliso Canyon gas leak in California, Energy-Storage.News sets the scene of how the California Energy Commission and chosen system suppliers got their heads around solving a mammoth power shortage with many, many batteries, in a race against time.

Multinational utility Engie will install a 1MW / 4MWh Eos Energy Storage zinc hybrid cathode battery system in Brazil and is expected to “exercise the system to its operational boundaries”.

In the spirit of harnessing clean energy and enhancing grid reliability, Californian utility San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has signed contracts for 83.5MW of energy storage.

Queensland-based developer SolarQ is planning to build a 350MW(ac) solar plant combined with a ground-breaking 4,000MWh of lithium-ion battery storage in the Gympie Region of Queensland, Australia.

Clearly, renewable energy is now a viable alternative to traditional generation from a cost perspective. However solar and wind’s penetration of the grid is constrained by ageing infrastructure, high grid connection costs and their intermittent, weather-dependent nature. Scott McGregor looks at how long-duration energy storage on an industrial scale can help.

Energy storage companies “have suffered significant and detrimental harm” from changes to rules governing the frequency regulation market in US regional transmission organisation (RTO) PJM Interconnection’s service area, the Energy Storage Association has said.

One of Australia’s energy market regulators has put out a lengthy document detailing the potential impact of introducing five minute settlement into the electricity spot market, which would likely favour flexible resources such as energy storage.

San Diego, California’s ultracapacitor-based energy storage manufacturer Maxwell Technologies has signed a stock purchase agreement with China’s SFIC Fund Management – a significant investor in China’s storage industry – at US$6.32 per share.

A consumer protection scheme for domestic renewables has revealed that it received at least one complaint a week during 2016 related to battery storage, half of which concerned mis-selling practices.

Younicos CEO Stephen L. Prince ponders the role of energy storage within the three ‘Ds’ revolutionising energy: digitisation, decentralisation and decarbonisation.