This piece from TWW’s Greg Brophy first ran in the Fairplay Flume on July 3, 2024 and can be accessed here.
Battery Energy Storage strengthens the grid
Greg Brophy
Technological innovations over the last several decades are changing the way we use batteries in nearly every aspect of our lives. Smart phones, laptops, tablets, hybrid cars and fully electric vehicles – we are literally surrounded by these technologies which all, to some extent, are built around batteries.
In the late 2000’s, as a farmer and state legislator from Colorado’s Eastern Plains, I remember turning heads by driving a Toyota Prius – the first hybrid-electric car to be a commercial success. Years later, however, it was no big deal when I traded up to a hybrid SUV.
Ironically enough, one area where batteries have been slow to take off is the power grid itself. But thanks to falling costs and safety advancements that is quickly changing.
According to 2023 data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the U.S. power sector has added 16 gigawatts of battery storage capacity in just a few short years. For scale, a medium sized city of 750,000 homes can be powered by 1 gigawatt.
The biggest reason for battery storage growth is pure economics: Over the past decade, the cost of battery storage has fallen by more than 80%. By the end of this year, battery capacity on the U.S. power grid could almost double to 31 gigawatts, the EIA predicts.
Battery storage will provide a critically important source of backup electricity for the power grid during severe weather and other interruptions. But batteries can also help our electrical transmission grid operate more efficiently, which is good for rate payers.
The National Renewable Energy Lab located in Golden, Colorado noted that battery systems “can help defer or circumvent the need for new grid investments by meeting peak demand with energy stored from lower-demand periods, thereby reducing congestion and improving overall transmission and distribution asset utilization.”
As a national leader in all forms of energy, Colorado is not sitting on the sidelines when it comes to battery storage. Plans on the table would add almost 2 gigawatts of new battery storage capacity in Colorado by 2030 – a roughly eight-fold expansion of our current capacity.
Here in Park County, it was recently reported by The Flume, that a 200 MW battery storage project is being planned 12 miles south of Fairplay. The storage project is being developed by RWE and is estimated to create 60 local construction jobs and “millions of dollars in tax revenue for the county”.
“BESS is a technology used to store excess electrical energy during times of high generation, and then discharge that energy during times of high demand, helping to stabilize the grid and reduce the need for backup power sources,” said RWE’s Jonathan Berry, Utility-Scale Development Manager.
To be sure, energy storage projects have their critics. Some of the loudest voices point to a 2019 explosion at an energy storage facility in Arizona, which injured nine first responders.
At the time, energy storage facilities were still very new and the firefighters had not received specialized training, as they receive for other kinds of energy infrastructure like electrical transformers or oil and gas wells.
However, since then, the National Fire Protection Association has developed standards and training courses to fill this gap. In addition, energy storage systems receive the same regulatory scrutiny as other pieces of infrastructure on the power grid that we live and work around every day without any safety concerns.
And personally, I can say that over the past 17 years, I’ve driven more than 600,000 miles in three different vehicles, each with sizable batteries, and I’ve never had any reason to worry. Like other energy technologies, from fracking to rooftop solar panels and everything in between, the risks are manageable and are actively being managed.
For decades, Colorado has been an “all of the above” energy state, where new energy sources and innovations are welcomed, because they provide more choice and competition in a critical economic sector. Battery storage is the next chapter.