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.

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.

Projects that demonstrate how energy storage can benefit a wide range of stakeholders and the electric grid can compete for US$15.5 million of funding from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

Tualatin, Oregon-headquartered Powin Energy has partnered with Eaton to deliver their 2MW expedited energy storage product which was procured to address the energy shortages the LA Basin faced as a result of the four-month long methane leak.

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.

Arguing that energy storage is “critical to ensuring a resilient, reliable, cost-effective and sustainable grid”, the Energy Storage Association joined with 52 other organisations to plead the place of storage in the Trump administration’s infrastructure priorities.

According to the latest GTM Research figures, energy storage is coming into its own and is no longer confined to a handful of US states. 21 states now have 20MW of storage projects proposed, in construction or deployed. Further, 10 states have pipelines of more than 100MW.

Utility San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) and Sumitomo Electric (SEI) have launched a 2MW/8MWh pilot vanadium redox flow battery storage project in California to study how the technology can reliably integrate renewable energy and improve flexibility in grid management.

EDF Renewable Energy has created a new business unit, Distributed Electricity and Storage (DES), which will focus on distributed solar and storage projects up to 30MW.

Led by a record-breaking final quarter, energy storage reached 336MWh in 2016, growing 100% in megawatt-hours from 2015’s installed capacity, despite staying roughly flat in megawatts with 221MW deployed last year.