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https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-08-19/world-s-biggest-battery-project-comes-to-power-hungry-california?__twitter_impression=true

World’s Biggest Battery Project Comes to Power-Hungry California

Brian EckhouseAugust 19, 2020, 12:00 PM EDT

• Lack of energy storage has strained power grid amid heatwave

The world’s biggest battery-storage system is now in operation in California.

The 230-megawatt project in San Diego county is significantly bigger than a Tesla Inc. system in Australia. It’s expected to expand to 250 megawatts by the end of the month, according to developer LS Power.

LG Chem lithium-ion batteries inside the LS Power Gateway Energy Storage project.

Photographer: Bing Guan/Bloomberg

The Gateway Energy Storage project arrives as an unrelenting heatwave has strained California’s electric grid, prompting rolling blackouts that have plunged millions into darkness in the past week. The state’s grid operator has said that adding more storage capacity would help it meet demand in the evenings when solar power starts to wane.

The blackouts “underscore the need for more reliable capacity,” Paul Segal, LS Power’s chief executive officer said in an interview. “Batteries do an exceptional job.”

READ: California Doomed to Frequent Blackout Risk by Battery Storage

The Otay Mesa Energy Center and LS Power Gateway Energy Storage project.

Photographer: Bing Guan/Bloomberg

An initial phase of Gateway Energy went into service in June. New York-based LS Power has developed, built, managed or bought more than 42 gigawatts of power generation and storage plants since it was founded in 1990. It commissioned a 40-megawatt battery in Southern California in 2018 and is building a 200-megawatt system in the Bay Area.

“We’re building these like power plants,” John King, LS Power’s head of renewables. “We’re putting them in places so they can respond during evening peaks.”