The 200-MWh Crossett battery energy storage site has started commercial operations in the high-demand Electric Reliability Council of Texas grid.
Jupiter Power’s second major transmission grid-connected battery project is called one of the largest in the ERCOT territory. The Crossett battery array in Crane County will hold energy for fast-response, dispatchable power into the grid during times of peak demand.
"We reach yet another significant milestone in our ERCOT battery energy storage portfolio with the commencement of commercial operations at the Crossett facility," said Mike Geier, Chief Technology Officer, Jupiter Power, in a statement.
Indeed, a scorching summer already has placed huge demand on the ERCOT system well ahead of the usual peaks in August. The system operator has reported all-time records of more than 76,000 MW (76 GW) at various times this month.
The ERCOT system totals close to 91 GW in firm, available capacity. These assets include gas, coal, nuclear, wind and solar.
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Extreme summer and winter events have stressed the Texas grid in recent years. Rolling outages often are a result of those events.
"We have witnessed the strain that the Texas climate can put on the grid during unseasonably warm days,” Jupiter Power’s Geier added. “Jupiter Power's projects like Crossett and Flower Valley II are optimally sited where the grid needs support to enhance resiliency both cost-effectively and reliably."
Flower Valley II is a 100-MW/200-MWh transmission-connected facility in operation in Reeves County, Texas. Jupiter also has three distribution grid-connected energy storage facilities. Additionally, Jupiter Power is commissioning a subsequent 100MW/200MWh project in West Texas that will be in commercial operations in the summer of 2022.
Last year, Jupiter Power announced it would build six stand-alone, utility-scale battery storage projects over the following year, totaling 652 megawatt-hours of energy storage capacity. The projects consist of three 200-megawatt-hour projects --including Crossett and Flower Valley II--and three smaller projects, each strategically sited and configured at optimized locations.
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(Rod Walton, senior editor for EnergyTech, is a 14-year veteran of covering the energy industry both as a newspaper and trade journalist. He can be reached at [email protected]).
