Dive Brief:
- Lightshift Energy and the Blue Ridge Power Agency, a Virginia power wholesaler for municipal and cooperative electric utilities, announced plans on Thursday to deploy about 25 MW of distribution-connected energy storage at five sites owned by three BRPA member utilities. Each 5-MW project is expected to come online this year, they said.
- The batteries will charge during periods of low demand and discharge during periods of high demand, providing a source of peak power capacity amid sharply rising load growth in Virginia and the broader PJM Interconnection, BRPA and Lightshift said. Lightshift estimates the portfolio will deliver approximately $100 million in savings over its service life.
- Lightshift can deploy distribution-connected energy storage systems faster and with less upfront development expense than transmission-connected systems that can cost “tens of millions” and take several years to interconnect in PJM, Robert Greskowiak, Lightshift’s chief commercial officer, told Utility Dive in an interview.
Dive Insight:
Lightshift says battery projects can help control rising transmission and capacity costs, especially in the PJM Interconnection, which includes Virginia — home to “data center alley.”
The company will deploy three battery installations at properties owned by Central Virginia Electric Cooperative and one each at properties owned by Craig-Botetourt Electric Cooperative and the municipal electric department for the city of Salem, Virginia, according to the announcement. The three entities are relatively small distribution utilities that serve customers in largely rural and suburban communities across central and western Virginia.
The five Virginia deployments are on the lower end of Lightshift’s “sweet spot” of 5 MW to 30 MW, Greskowiak said…