Utility Dive outlined an innovative Con Edison and GI Energy battery storage project in New York, quoting AEE’s Danny Waggoner on aspects of the project. Read excerpts below and the full story here.
Con Edison and infrastructure company GI Energy are partnering on a unique demonstration project, installing a 1 MW battery storage project on a customer property on City Island in the Bronx. The project will deliver power to businesses along the commercial strip in the summer, relieving grid strain when temperatures rise…ConEd and GI Energy are planning four installations as part of the demonstration; this is the second battery system in the project, joining one deployed on the North Shore of Staten Island early last year…
Trautner explained, there is limited space for large storage projects and relatively few customers have conditions that can justify the up-front cost of a battery while also offering the location that a utility needs. This model, where the utility selects the location and guidelines for the battery in exchange for a lease payment (with no impact to the site's utility bills), "could help expand the universe of viable high-value locations for siting such front-of-the-meter projects."…
Danny Waggoner, who manages Advanced Energy Economy's regulatory work in New York, said third parties can install and be compensated for battery projects, but are limited by a lack of available data on the best project parameters. This model, Waggoner said, holds promise by correcting that "information asymmetry," although he added that state and local regulators could do more to streamline installation and approval.
New York state has a goal of reaching 70% renewable electricity by 2030 and has said it wants to reach 1,500 MW of storage by 2025 and 3,000 MW by 2030. ConEd partnered with 174 Power Global and announced in December a 100 MW battery in Astoria, Queens and has a 2 MW storage system in Ozone Park, Queens.
Read the full story here.