An Industry First, Distributed Energy Storage System Dispatches Electricity to California Grid
Marking a US power industry first, a “smart” network of distributed energy storage systems installed on-site on utility-customer premises successfully bid into and supplied electricity to California’s power grid via the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) real-time, day-to-day wholesale power market.
Aggregated by pioneering smart grid technology developers Stem and Olivine, the distributed energy storage network functions as one large, utility-scale energy storage asset. Smart battery storage systems are installed at 18 Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) commercial customer sites.
“Stem’s participation in CAISO proves out the theory that customer-sited energy storage can be used to provide multiple services from a single asset,” Ted Ko, director of policy for Stem, said. “Stem leverages our proprietary predictive analytics at the customer level to forecast demand management needs, then uses the forecast excess to bid into day-ahead and real-time markets, protecting customer needs while further optimizing the system.”
Transforming Energy from a Cost to a Profit Center
The 18 customer-sited intelligent battery storage systems that make up Stem and Olivine’s smart energy storage platform have been installed under the umbrella of PG&E’s groundbreaking Supply-Side Pilot (SSP) program. The investor-owned utility launched the SSP program in response to the California state government’s enactment of a mandate that requires California’s investor-owned utilities to acquire 1.325 GW of power storage capacity by 2020.
Stem and Olivine’s distributed smart battery storage network not only enhances the efficiency, overall performance and resilience of the power grid, it converts customers’ energy usage from a cost center into an asset that generates revenue and profits upon installation and for many years, even decades, thereafter, Stem CEO John Carrington said in a company statement. “The ability to leverage customer-sited storage for multiple applications is the foundation for unlocking the full potential of energy storage for both customers and the grid.”
Once in place, those capabilities are highly replicable across other markets in the U.S. and around the world, he added.
