{"id":331742,"date":"2024-06-06T07:49:17","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T05:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=331742"},"modified":"2024-06-06T07:49:24","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T05:49:24","slug":"stress-testing-californias-grid-batteries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=331742","title":{"rendered":"Stress Testing California\u2019s Grid\u00a0Batteries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Science Matters <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Ron Clutz<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lots of PR coming out of the golden state regarding great strides in building battery capacity required by the green dream of 100% carbon free electrical power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Business Insider: <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Batteries briefly<\/strong> became the biggest source of power<\/strong> in California twice in the past week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first time \u2014 Tuesday last week around 8:10 p.m. PT, according to GridStatus.io<\/strong><\/a> \u2014 batteries<\/strong> reached a record peak output of 6,177 megawatts<\/strong>. For about two hours<\/strong>, that made electricity generated earlier and stored in batteries the single largest source of power<\/strong> in the Golden state, eclipsing real-time production from natural gas, nuclear, renewable sources like wind and solar, and all other sources of energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It happened again<\/strong> on Sunday evening, this time for a few hours<\/strong> around 7:10 p.m. PT, per data from GridStatus.io. In that instance, which broke Tuesday\u2019s record, batteries reached a peak output of 6,458 megawatts.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Battery storage has become a key part of the push to produce more electricity using renewable sources. By connecting huge, rechargeable batteries to power grids<\/strong>, power utilities can store energy generated during the day by solar panels and wind turbines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Augmentation at the Vistra Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in California has been completed, with the world\u2019s biggest battery energy storage system (BESS) now at 400MW \/ 1,600MWh. The batteries are housed in repurposed gas turbine halls. Image: Vistra Energy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Note the BESS ratings for power (MW) and energy output (MWh).  In this case, Moss Landing has a maximum power of 400MW and a duration of 4 hours, or 1600MWh.  Such a factor of 4 seems typical for large scale BESS in California.  It also means that for a single peak hour demand, Moss Landing can only supply 400MW for that hour.  If more energy is needed, it will have to come from somewhere else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then in April we have the news from Gov. Newsome\u2019s office California Achieves Major Clean Energy Victory: 10,000 Megawatts of Battery Storage<\/strong><\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s Apply Some Context to These Cheerful Reports<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The California Energy Commission produced its electricity forecast<\/strong><\/a> end of 2022:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Note the graph is projecting hourly electricity demand, which peaks during hour 19.  Output levels approach and then exceed 50,000 MW demand that hour, or 50k MWh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cal matters<\/strong><\/a> raises concerns about state policy to phase out ICE vehicles in favor of EVs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Again demand requires from the grid 50k MW per hour in 2022 with less than 1% for charging EVs.  That is projected to go 10 times higher in 13 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The excitement is about batteries supplying  6500 MW for a couple of hours when the peak demand is 50,000 MW.  The glorious achievement is building battery capacity up to 10,000 MW.  It doesn\u2019t add up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lots of PR coming out of the golden state regarding great strides in building battery capacity required by the green dream of 100% carbon free electrical power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":331749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818068,691829013,691818154,691829014],"class_list":["post-331742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-california","tag-grid-batteries-2","tag-net-zero","tag-olar-panels-and-wind-turbines","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1oiG","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":244232,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=244232","url_meta":{"origin":331742,"position":0},"title":"California 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