Energy storage developer Jupiter Power has brought a 200 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) online in Texas and expects to run more than 650 MWh ahead of ERCOT's peak summer season.
The company said yesterday (March 30, 2022) that the Flower Valley II in Reeves County has begun commercial operations. The company added that the 100MW/200MWh BESS is Jupiter's first transmission connection project and one of the largest commercial operations in Texas.
It will provide power to the Electric Reliability Commission of Texas (ERCOT) grid through energy capacity and grid reinforcement ancillary services. On the Texas grid, the primary ancillary services that energy storage participates in are the Regulatory Reserve Service (RRS) and the Fast Frequency Response Service (FFR), which together make up the bulk of the energy storage asset’s revenue.
"We are excited to announce the commencement of commercial operation of our largest battery to date," said Andy Bowman, CEO of Jupiter Power. "Our utility-scale energy storage projects provide rapidly responsive, distributable energy that is critical for the grid to better match renewable resources with customer demand."
By the end of 2021, Texas leads the way with 451 gigawatts of renewable electricity, nearly double California (229 gigawatts). However, as of January 31, 2022, it is only about half of California's 2.6 GW of grid-connected energy storage.
Located next to Huagu 1, Huagu II is a smaller 9.9 MW/19.8 MW system that will be put into commercial operation in mid-2021 with an investment of over US$70 million in both projects.
Jupiter has two other transmission connection projects in Texas, currently in commissioning, totaling 400 MWh, and expected to be operational before ERCOT’s peak summer season. Crossett in Crane County is a 200MW/200MWh system, while Swoose II, also adjacent to the existing 9.9MW/19.8MWh BESS, has a 100MW/200MWh capacity.
With 15 MWh of energy at the Triple Butte I project already operating in Pecos County, the two larger projects will bring Jupiter Power's operational storage capacity in the state to 654.6 MWh (and 427.3 MWh) watts of output power).
ERCOT has a streamlined interconnection process for generation resources below 10MW, which may partly explain the scale of projects Jupiter is already operating commercially. The RRS and FFR requirements also drive the deployment of the one-hour system, meaning a smaller BESS project on average than California, which became mainstream at least four years ago.
Jupiter's strategy in Texas is to start developing projects without a contract to deliver capacity to the grid or ancillary services. It selects strategic locations where energy storage is most needed, such as system bottlenecks or areas where energy storage can cushion electricity price volatility.
The RRS provides 10 minutes of energy deployment in response to significant power generation losses in the system and provides operating reserves for frequency control after large power generation contingencies. In the RRS range, RRS-FFR (Fast Frequency Response) requires the device to deploy automatically and provide a complete response within 15 cycles after the frequency reaches or falls below 59.85Hz.
A market source told us. Sources say both services will remain the main source of revenue for some time, and the market is showing no signs of saturating. Although energy storage is also making more money through arbitrage, they added.
The state suffered a severe power crisis last year, with a winter snowstorm killing hundreds, some of them due to power outages. Industry insiders said at the time that the crisis had highlighted the importance of grid energy storage.
