This project comes after GridBeyond began commercial operations of Port battery in Japan.
Dublin-based smart energy solutions company GridBeyond is leading the operations optimisation of a battery energy storage system (BESS) in California.
GridBeyond began operations at the Big Rock BESS this summer along with London’s Gore Street Energy Storage Fund, an energy storage investment fund.
At 200 MW, or 400 MWh, this is the largest asset managed by GridBeyond and Gore Street Capital and will dispatch power to roughly 200,000 homes in Southern California at peak times.
According to the two firms, it look a team of more than 20 people comprising of data scientists, regulatory analysts and industrial control engineers, who worked across multiple time zones and countries to bring the BESS live.
”This is an enormous battery system and an important source of resiliency to the state of California”, said Sean McEvoy, the president of North America at GridBeyond.
McEvoy said that the Big Rock BESS is set to provide up to 40pc of California’s energy regulation services needs in certain hours.
In order to optimise services, GridBeyond is utilising its artificial intelligence-based bid optimiser, which matches market price forecasts with with real-time battery performance simulations to drive optimal bid strategies in the California ISO market.
“We are pleased to partner with a high-quality counterparty like GridBeyond on this landmark project, being able to capture revenues which outperform the market and tolling has been demonstrated by Gore Street for many years” said Alex O’Cinneide, the CEO of Gore Street Capital.
“Big Rock is not only a critical part of California’s energy infrastructure, but also a strong example of our ability to deliver for investors at scale and across multiple international markets.”
The Big Rock BESS is underpinned by a 12-year fixed-price Resource Adequacy contract, valued at more than $165m. This project comes shortly after GridBeyond began commercial operations of the Port battery in Kanto, Japan.
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