Industrial, Microgrids, Utilities, Sourcing Renewables  -  February 23, 2024

Pacific Gas and Electric to Add BH-ESS

Pacific Gas and Electric Company in California plans to add a green hydrogen plus battery ultra-long duration energy storage system (BH-ESS) with 293 MWh of dispatchable carbon-free energy.

Construction of the BH-ESS is being developed on less than one acre of land in the Northern California City of Calistoga and is expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2024. 

Upon completion, the BH-ESS, dubbed the Calistoga Resiliency Center, will be the first-of-its-kind and the largest utility-scale green hydrogen energy storage project in the U.S.  

The battery portion of the system will be used to support grid forming and black start capabilities. The system will be prepared to power downtown Calistoga and the surrounding area for up to 48 hours during potential Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS), which occur when the power lines serving the surrounding area must be turned off for safety due to high wildfire risk. 

PG&E’s proposal for the system was approved by the California Public Utilities Commission in April 2023.

The BH-ESS is being constructed by Energy Vault Holdings, Inc., a company that provides  sustainable grid-scale energy storage solutions, and will replace the traditional mobile diesel generators currently used to energize PG&E’s Calistoga microgrid during PSPS events in the area. 

“Deploying cost-effective, next-generation energy supply and long-term storage technologies is essential to ensuring grid reliability and to achieving PG&E’s goal of a net zero energy system by 2040,” said Mike Delaney, Vice President, Utility Partnerships and Innovation, in a statement. “PG&E is developing a portfolio of promising new forms of electricity generation and storage technologies, and identifying the right applications that will support the further proliferation of these technologies at the lowest capital cost and highest-impact locations.”

The energy storage system will be owned, operated, and maintained by Energy Vault while providing dispatchable power under a long-term tolling agreement with PG&E.

Under the 10.5-year agreement, Energy Vault will provide Distributed Generation-Enabled Microgrid Services, a type of energy service that involves using grid-forming generation and storage resources, to provide energy, fault current contribution and to regulate voltage and frequency within the utility’s established parameters to enable the islanding of the Calistoga microgrid during PSPS outages.