It is “unacceptable” for a rural electricity supplier to use solar to prevent load-shedding, but batteries or other grid-independent electricity sources could be used, Eskom said.

This edition of news in brief from around the world in energy storage focuses on small-scale but potentially significant deployments. 

A community choice energy provider run by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission in California has signed contracts for battery storage with EDF Renewables and NextEra Energy totalling 260MWh, to be deployed in combination with solar PV.

Microgrid projects on three different continents that include multiple megawatts of battery storage alongside renewable energy have been announced in the past few days from well-known industry players.

NEC Energy Solutions, a subsidiary of NEC Corporation, announced that it is supplying the Sterling Municipal Light Department (SMLD) of Sterling, Massachusetts, with a 2MW, 3.9 MWh energy storage solution.

Energy security is a growing concern for economies across the world with electricity outages currently costing economies billions of dollars annually, driving electricity prices up. The US experienced nearly 700 power outages caused by severe weather between 2003 and 2012, costing the country up to US$70 billion annually.

A community-owned utility company in California is preparing to install a large-scale battery system that could enable the addition of around 50MW of solar generation capacity to the local grid.