Today, Pacific Gas and Electric announced that it has commissioned its 182.5-megawatt Tesla Megapack battery energy storage system (BESS) located at Moss Landing, which officially certifies the project to join the company’s grid.
The Elkhorn Battery at PG&E’s Moss Landing electric substation was officially fully energized and certified for market participation on April 7, the company announced. The project integrates renewable energy sources into California’s grid while also enhancing the reliability of the energy supply. BESS projects are one of the most effective ways to avoid blackouts, as batteries are charged when demand for energy is low. The batteries then provide additional capacity by sending the reserved power to the energy grid when demand increases.
“We are ushering in a new era of electric system reliability and delivering a vision into the future for our customers with the commissioning of the Tesla Megapack system in Moss Landing,” PG&E Corporation Chief Executive Officer Patti Poppe said. We are committed to safely delivering reliable and clean energy in a way that achieves the greatest value for our customers, but we can’t go it alone into this clean energy future. Projects like this require innovative partners, such as Tesla, and PG&E will continue to seek out and work with the best and brightest to provide breakthrough clean energy solutions for our customers.”
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Powered by 256 Tesla Megapacks, each unit houses batteries and power conversion equipment. The BESS has the ability to store and dispatch up to 730 megawatt-hours of energy to the grid at a maximum rate of 182.5 MW for up to four hours during times of high demand. The Elkhorn Battery increases the reliability of the entire system by addressing capacity deficiencies that have resulted in increased energy demand.
The project was approved by the California Public Utilities Commission in late 2018 and construction officially started in July 2020.
This year, two other projects were commissioned a 200 MW Diablo Storage System in Contra Costa County and another 60 MW system, known as the Coso Battery Storage System, in Inyo County. PG&E said it expects an additional 1,400-plus MW of storage capacity to come online by the end of 2023.
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