Sumitomo begins operation of 6 MW, 2 MWh battery for PJM frequency regulation
The growth of wind and solar power projects has brought with it a growing need for energy storage to balance the intermittent supply of those renewable resources.
Sumitomo’s Willey Battery Utility in Ohio is meant to address the intermittency in the PJM Interconnection region by providing frequency regulation services.
“As a developer of wind and solar power plants which are unavoidably intermittent generation sources, we think it is quite important that we also contribute to the stabilization of power grids through balancing services,” Nick Hagiwara, director of the power and infrastructure group at Sumitomo Corp. of the Americas, said in a statement.
The growth of wind and solar power resources in the PJM Interconnection’s service area has increased the need for grid balancing services quickly within the RTO’s roughly 13 state footprint. About two-thirds of the 62 MW of storage deployed in the U.S. in 2014 was installed in PJM.
PJM has since put a temporary halt on its frequency regulation market while it studies the market, but developers continue to pursue projects as storage is increasingly seen as a viable alternative to thermal and hydro generation.
