San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Hecate Energy Bancroft LLC for a new 20 MW energy storage facility, and the utility says it is well ahead of schedule for meeting California’s storage goals.
According to SDG&E, the lithium-ion battery project will be able to store supplies of clean energy when they are abundant and inexpensive and release that energy during peak hours when customer demand is high.
“SDG&E is proud to launch an advanced energy storage facility to harness solar, wind and other sources of energy so that we can supply it to our customers when they need it most,” says Scott Drury, the utility’s chief energy supply officer.
The California Public Utilities Commission has set targets for California’s electric utilities to procure large amounts of energy storage by 2020, including 165 MW by SDG&E. This project, which is expected to be completed by 2019, brings SDG&E’s total completed or in-progress energy storage projects to 79 MW.
