Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS) has joined with SunEdison to fulfill their 50 megawatt contract with Southern California Edison (SCE).
The contractors will work directly with the power company to analyze where electricity demand is low so that it can be used in areas where electricity demand is greatest.
AMS searches for areas that have the potential to alleviate the energy demands of other parts of Southern California. One such area might be a neighborhood where many people have adopted solar energy, but may not use a lot of electricity. Residential areas may be able to power commercial districts during times when usage in these areas is low. This is one example of many possibilities.
Many individual battery storage devices will then be sent out as “fleets” to areas with high demand during peak hours.
SunEdison is primarily in charge of installation as well as finance, while AMS is in charge of developing and managing the many 200-megawatt battery storage systems needed for the project. Since the two companies have the opportunity to work directly with SCE, they will not have the responsibility of looking for customers or finding power companies to buy electricity from these behind-the-meter systems.
Last year, the California power company awarded contracts to many companies to increase energy storage capacity as part of their SCE 2013 Local Capacity Requirement Solicitation. The solicitation is an effort to accommodate the loss of the San Onofre nuclear power plant.
Commercial operations will commence in Irvine, California in 2016 when 10-megawatt storage systems become available.
