sandiegouniontribune.comSan Diego Community Power signs agreement for big energy storage project that could power 45,000 homes - The San Diego Union-Tribune
Rob NikolewskiSan Diego Community Power just added another battery storage facility to its roster of energy projects.
The community choice energy program that purchases power for six cities and unincorporated areas of San Diego County reached a 15-year agreement with Arevon Energy Inc. to build an energy battery facility in Carson.
The Avocet Energy Storage Project will be the largest stand-alone facility in SDCP’s portfolio, with capacity of 200 megawatts and 800 megawatt-hours. The energy discharged from the Megapack batteries provided by Tesla is expected to power about 45,000 homes for up to four hours on a daily basis.
It’s anticipated that the project will be up and running by the second quarter of 2026.
The Union-Tribune asked what kind of elements make up the chemistry of the Megapack batteries to be used at the Avocet Energy Storage project but did not get an answer from Arevon within 36 hours. The financial details of the 15-year agreement between Arevon and SDCP were not disclosed.
The batteries at the Avocet project will store energy during the hours the California electric grid swells with production from solar and other renewable sources and then discharge power during peak-demand periods, such as the 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. hours.
Energy from battery storage systems also help reduce the chances of blackouts.
“The Avocet project will be a critical component to ensure that, not only are we adding energy storage to shift renewable generation to demand hours, but we are creating quality construction jobs that support the energy transition in our communities,” SDCP’s chief executive officer, Karin Burns, said in a statement.
Constructing Avocet is estimated to create 75 union jobs.
The project marks the second contract SDCP has signed with Arevon, which is headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz. The first was the Vikings Solar-plus-Storage project that broke ground in March 2023. Based in Imperial County, the Vikings facility expects to generate 37 megawatts of solar production, combined with 150 megawatts/600 megawatt-hours of battery energy storage capacity.
Earlier this year, SDCP signed a 15-year deal with Wellhead Electric Co., which is building the Chula Vista Energy Center 2 that will provide 50 megawatts of capacity and nearly 200 megawatt-hours of power from a 4-hour lithium-ion battery system.
SDCP is one of 25 community choice aggregation programs, or CCAs, that have sprung up across the state in recent years. They purchase electricity generation for residents and businesses in their respective municipalities.
CCAs were created by the California Legislature in 2002 to encourage the growth of renewable energy and provide competition to traditional investor-owned utilities such as San Diego Gas & Electric by offering customers higher percentages of renewable sources at comparable or slightly lower rates.
Utilities such as SDG&E still perform every other duty outside of power generation purchases. That includes maintaining poles, wires and power lines in their respective transmission and distribution systems, plus handling customer services, such as billing.
Serving customers since 2021, SDCP purchases power for its customers in the cities of San Diego, Chula Vista, La Mesa, Encinitas, Imperial Beach, National City and the unincorporated areas of San Diego County. With more than 950,000 accounts, SDCP is the second-largest CCA in the state.
