Energy storage system project will make supply more efficient

The Swedish-American energy storage provider, NorthStar, has presented its partnership with City Utilities of Springfield, Missouri, within the area of Energy Storage Systems (ESS).

The initial demonstration deployment in the Springfield electricity grid is aimed to evaluate how Springfield’s energy supply can be made more efficient and sustainable, and will be using NorthStar BLUE+ batteries monitored by the remote management solution NorthStar ACE.

ESS represents an emerging industry with a potential worldwide capacity of multiple gigawatt hours. There has been a tremendous growth in the ESS market globally aligned with the increased deployment of renewable energy and tighter emission restrictions of coal-fired power plants.

The need for utilities to reduce peak power demand on generation, transmission and distribution systems has created a need for battery storage to fill reliability gaps and cut peak costs. Utilities strive to optimize transmission and distribution of the electric grid, among other objectives.

NorthStar’s CEO Hans Lidén commented: “The ESS market is expected to grow to $200-400bn by 2040 and represents a significant growth opportunity for NorthStar. In light of this global development, and given this partnership’s importance specifically for Springfield, our joint project with City Utilities is very important.”

The energy storage solution in Springfield will be deployed next to an electrical substation located in southwest of Springfield. The project will support a growing region and new business developments are currently under construction.

The project enables City Utilities to investigate the possibility of a utility scale battery storage system. It will be carefully evaluated to determine the benefits of battery storage with respect to managing future system peak loads for City Utilities.

“We’re very excited with this opportunity to work with our community partner NorthStar on this pilot project. The opportunity to provide a platform for research that supports renewable integration options for our customers and potentially globally is something everyone at CU is excited about”, said City Utilities’ General Manager Scott Miller.

In the emerging ESS landscape, NorthStar has a suitable solution for a significant portion of the market with its BLUE+ technology. This thin plate lead carbon (TPLC) battery has demonstrated excellent results in demanding high-cyclic applications worldwide.

“As an added differentiator, the NorthStar ACE battery monitoring system will be presented as another innovation to monitor the solution and extend battery life in ESS. This makes us a strong candidate on this market”, added Lidén.

The joint ESS project will be deployed in September 2017.