Trina Storage has partnered with system integrator FlexGen on a 371MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) project for developer SMT Energy in Houston, Texas, US.
Trina Storage said on Wednesday (23 April) that it is the largest grid-scale BESS project in North America that the energy storage arm of Chinese vertically integrated solar PV company Trinasolar has worked on to date.
The BESS will use Trina Storage’s Elementa 2 storage solution, which utilises lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells.
Trina recently announced the Elementa 2 Pro, a 5MWh system in several regions including Europe, Asia-Pacific and MEA.
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FlexGen will be providing system integration services, using its HybridOS energy management software (EMS).
The company recently announced that it has upgraded HybridOS’ State of Health (SOH) feature, which it claims will give a more reliable view of battery degradation using a proprietary SOH algorithm.
Terry Chen, vice president of Trina Storage North America, highlighted that this will be the company’s first grid-scale deployment in North America. The Trinasolar BESS subsidiary’s first deployments outside China were in the UK, where it completed an initial 50MW project in 2022 and has around 2GW of projects presently in operation, construction, or commissioning.
It had projects in Germany, Italy and Spain as of the time European sales manager Juan Ceballos spoke with ESN Premium for an interview on European market requirements in February this year at the Energy Storage Summit EU, hosted in London by our publisher Solar Media.
So far in the US, Trina Storage has completed four projects totalling 16MW/64MWh in Massachusetts for Lighshift Energy after the developer won a competitive solicitation hosted by Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company (MMWEC).
Notably, Trina, headquartered in China, will provide the BESS for SMT’s Texas project, and FlexGen, headquartered in the US, will provide the EMS for the systems.
It is common practice for US companies to purchase BESS equipment and replace the installed EMS software made in another country with a domestic one.
Recently, while speaking with Energy-Storage.news, Prevalon Energy’s president and CEO, Thomas Cornell, said (Premium access article):
“Anytime you’ve got a generation asset or any asset that’s touching the grid directly, there is the fear that some type of malware could get in there and could cause issues with bringing down parts of the grid.”
Cybersecurity is a growing concern in the energy storage industry, with EMS often at the forefront of the discussion.
SMT Energy has previously worked with FlexGen.
In February of this year, the developer announced it secured a US$135 million funding for its 160MW/320MWh BESS, for which FlexGen is obtaining the equipment and providing the EMS.
SMT has also deployed projects in Texas in partnership with investor SUSI Partners too, covered by Energy-Storage.news.
