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Idaho Power shuns PPA in bid for battery energy storage capacity

Idaho Power asked its regulators to approve a plan for it to install and own 524MWh/120 MW of battery storage, to come online in the summer of 2023. If approved, the batteries would be the first utility-scale storage system in Idaho. The company issued a request for proposals in May 2021 for new resources to meet 2023 energy needs. It […]

Idaho Power asked its regulators to approve a plan for it to install and own 524MWh/120 MW of battery storage, to come online in the summer of 2023.

If approved, the batteries would be the first utility-scale storage system in Idaho. The company issued a request for proposals in May 2021 for new resources to meet 2023 energy needs. It selected Portland, Oregon-based Powin Energy to install the systems, which would be owned by the utility.

In its filing seeking approval, Idaho Power said that it has been resource sufficient since the addition of the Langley Gulch natural gas fired power plant a decade ago. Its planning models did not indicate a capacity deficit until mid-2028. That outlook began to change in 2021 when planners forecast a deficit starting in 2023 and extending to 2026. A handful of factors led to the deficit, the utility said, including growing demand, transmission availability and what the utility said was a “diminishing demand response resource effectiveness.”

The proposed projects include what the utility said was 40 MW of energy storage with a 40 MW solar photovoltaic project known as Black Mesa. Another 80 MW of storage would be located at the utility’s Hemingway substation.

Idaho Power asked for approval to own the systems, citing what it said was a relative lack of flexibility with power purchase agreements (PPAs). It said that if it were to sign a PPA, then terms around such items as dispatchability, curtailment, maintenance, security, mandatory payment, and operational terms would be baked-in for the contract term. It said that a PPA’s lack of flexibility would introduce challenges, particularly in the western Energy Imbalance Market where dispatch changes are made in real time and within an hour.

“For a utility-scale battery storage facility in particular, PPA arrangements introduce additional complications,” the utility said in its filing.

It said that owning the facility would still allow the utility to focus on price but also allow it to focus on economic dispatch changing energy markets. It said that because it wants to meet capacity as well as energy deficits, an ownership model would best serve its needs and those of its customers.

Idaho Power’s most recent long-range plan calls for adding nearly 1,700 MW of battery storage and more than 2,100 MW of solar and wind capacity by 2040.

Powin said it would supply its Stack750, a 1500Vdc modular battery product that uses its branded Centipede hardware platform. Up to 21 modules may be connected in a string.

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