The state and utilities are working together to offer efficiency programs, encourage renewable energy, create new financing mechanisms, and update the existing grid infrastructure, as well as a laundry list of other techniques. The CBS project is part of the state of New York’s larger Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) program, which seeks to create a cleaner, more economic, and more resilient electricity grid. In a post on the project, news site Utility Dive points out that this long-term plan actually creates three value streams: 1) Grid benefits for ConEd, by helping meet peak demand 2) Revenue for GI Energy via the wholesale market 3) lease payments for the site owner where the batteries are located. When regulations allow, GI Energy even hopes to participate in New York’s wholesale electricity market. The rest of the time, GI Energy can use the energy in whatever way they’d like. When ConEd needs some extra juice during peak times, they’ll call on the battery storage to meet that demand. It’s the first of several that will act as a demonstration project. The first system, a 1 MW/ 1 MWh project, was turned on in April this year. ConEd gave GI Energy a list of areas that could especially benefit from energy storage, then GI Energy took over finding a suitable location, leasing the area, and project development. Instead of doing all the research to find the perfect area for a battery system, ConEd simply put the developer – GI Energy – in charge. Instead of building the battery system themselves, the utility simply asked another company to do it for them.
While ConEd owns the Queens battery system discussed above and uses it to meet peak demand in a very specific area, these four CBS projects are very different. The Queens battery project comes just as ConEd is installing four other battery systems as part of a Commercial Battery Storage (CBS) project. Con Edison testing energy storage as part of REV The Queens battery storage system is designed as a test project, which ConEd will study and pull best practices from, as they look to build more energy storage systems in the city.
While the program had some hiccups (ConEd cancelled some of the offerings, like a commercial appliance program), its non-wires approach is seen as an exemplary model for other utilities. Originally the BQDMP was set to end in 2018, but after its success ConEd asked the New York Public Service Commission for permission to extend it beyond that year. The entire program has a $200 million budget – a fraction of the cost of the substation upgrade.
These included energy efficiency programs (helping customers install LEDs, smart thermostats, and efficient appliances), distributed resources like batteries and possibly fuel cells, and demand response programs, or programs where customers themselves help to lower that peak energy use during specific afternoons.
The utility hopes to avoid a costly $1.2 billion substation upgrade by meeting peak demand via a variety of ‘non-wires’ methods. The battery project is part of ConEd’s five-year-old Brooklyn-Queens Demand Management Program, a creative solution to a complex problem. Like many utilities installing energy storage, ConEd will use the batteries to provide electricity during times of peak demand, typically hot summer afternoons when local residents are cranking up AC units. The energy storage is capable of providing power to 1,000 homes for just over five hours during these peak periods.
The system is composed of lithium-ion batteries, similar to those found in smartphones and electric vehicles, and are stored in eight shipping containers. Con Edison installs batteries in QueensĮarlier this week, the utility installed a small energy storage system near Ozone Park in Queens. Many of the battery projects are part of Reforming the Energy Vision, a larger state-wide program to modernize the grid and lower emissions. Con Edison, the utility servicing New York City and one of the largest privately-owned utilities in the US, is beginning a drive to install small energy storage systems across NYC to meet local energy needs without costly infrastructure upgrades.