Southern Company subsidiary Southern Power’s battery-based energy storage projects at its Tranquillity and Garland solar facilities in California are now fully operational.
“These co-located solar and storage projects are a first of their kind for Southern Power,” says Bill Grantham, Southern Power’s president. “We expect these new battery-based energy storage projects to enhance California’s grid reliability. The combination of our solar technology and these new energy storage resources will further position Southern Power to meet our customers’ needs as the energy industry continues to evolve.”
The battery-based energy storage additions will enhance California’s grid reliability by providing Southern California Edison and the California ISO with additional flexible resource capacity that will assist in further integrating intermittent renewable energy into the grid. The Garland Solar Facility Battery Store project will add 88MW and 352MWh of energy storage to peak capacity. The Tranquillity Solar Facility will also get 72MW and 288MWh of storage.
Southern California Edison has a 20-year power purchase contract to sell the resource adequacy benefits of both battery facilities.
The energy storage projects were jointly owned by KKR, AIP Management (on behalf Danish pension funds PKA & PenSam), which each have existing ownership interests at the Tranquillity or Garland solar facilities.
Rosendin Electric was responsible for the construction of the sites. Mitsubishi Power Americas was the equipment provider using Powin Energy Corporation’s batteries. The 20-year-old, long-term service contract with Mitsubishi Power Americas will allow Mitsubishi Power Americas to service the projects.