Press Release:
Rappahannock Electric Cooperative Launches Groundbreaking Battery Storage Project
Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC) and East Point Energy, a leading energy storage project developer, have announced commencement of the first grid-scale energy storage project by a Virginia electric cooperative.
Powin Energy Corporation will serve as the project’s integrator and equipment provider. Indie Energy provided technical and engineering support to the project.
The project has a peak capacity of 2 megawatts and a duration of 8 megawatt hours, or enough to power about 1,000 homes for 8 hours. Construction is expected to begin this fall, with full operation starting in early 2021.
The project will be located in Spotsylvania County and will provide multiple values to the grid, including:
· Providing resiliency to REC member-owners by temporarily providing electricity at times when the transmission system fails and the substation and the members served by it would otherwise be without power.
· Managing wholesale power costs by dispatching stored energy during peak times when electricity is more expensive for the Cooperative to purchase.
· Delaying the need for substation upgrades.
All of these uses help REC provide its member-owners more resilient, sustainable and affordable energy. Additionally, REC will use this project to learn how additional energy storage projects can be deployed on its system in the future.
“With more and more renewable energy on our system and with battery costs declining rapidly, energy storage is now a critical tool for our team as we work to connect our member-owners and communities with safe, reliable, affordable and sustainable energy solutions,” said John D. Hewa, president and CEO of REC, who also serves as chairman of the board for the U.S. Energy Storage Association.
“REC looks forward to bringing this battery storage project online,” said Lee Brock, manager of engineering and power supply at REC: “In addition to wholesale power costs reductions and increased reliability, this project will give REC real data on how battery storage can best be deployed in the future.”
About Rappahannock Electric Cooperative
REC is a member-owned utility that provides electric service to nearly 170,000 connection in portions of 22 Virginia counties. The Cooperative was formed in 1980 after the consolidation of two other cooperatives. REC operates and maintains more than 17,000 miles of power lines through its service area, which ranges from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the tidal waters of the
Chesapeake Bay. For more information, visit https://www.myrec.coop/res/index.cfm
About East Point Energy
East Point Energy is a leading battery storage project development firm located in
Charlottesville, Va. East Point executives have over a decade of distributed energy resources development experience and over 1.5 gigawatts of projects currently operating throughout the United States. East Point partners with utilities, landowners and communities to deploy projects that make the electrical grid more renewable, resilient and affordable. For more information, visit https://eastpointenergy.com/
About Powin Energy
Powin Energy is a leading next generation provider of fully integrated energy storage solutions that has deployed 150 MWh in energy storage systems, with another 600 MWh currently contracted. Powin is creating the next wave of safe and scalable battery energy storage that is purpose-built for the demands of utility-scale, commercial and industrial, and microgrid
applications. Powin was incorporated in Oregon in 1990 and has spent almost three decades
perfecting supply chain management. Combined with the management team’s decades of successful leadership experience in the energy, storage, and utility industries, Powin Energy is able to deliver exceptional value to large-scale energy projects. For more information, visit
http://www.powinenergy.com/
About Indie Energy
Based in Austin, Texas, Indie Energy was founded in 2016 by a group of energy storage
industry veterans tired of the sluggish pace at which the industry was moving. With over 80MW of grid-scale energy storage developed, designed and deployed, Indie Energy desires to put its diverse knowledge and experience base to work. ... See more
