Enel ramps battery energy storage capacity in Texas to help bolster stressed electric grid

Enel North America has ramped its utility-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) capacity in Texas with more on the way to help bolster the state’s main electric grid, which narrowly averted outages this summer amid a prolonged heat wave and record power demand.

The addition of five new BESS units totaling 369MW/555MWh “couldn’t have come at a better time,” said Paolo Romanacci, head of Enel’s renewable energy business in the US and Canada. Enel now has 520MW/780MWh BESS capacity in the state.

MW is rated power capacity, the maximum possible instantaneous discharge, and MWh is energy capacity, the maximum amount of stored energy.

“Adding more resource diversity and energy flexibility through solutions like battery storage, demand response, and renewable generation is key to reinforcing the power grid and ensuring energy availability for Texans amid high demand periods,” he added.

On 6 September, grid operator ERCOT declared an Energy Emergency 2 alert when reserves ran low. To help prevent rolling outages, Enel delivered around 524MWh of electricity from its seven operational BESS to the grid.

The units store up to 325MW of electricity when supply is high and costs are low and dispatched to the grid within seconds if needed – enough to power about 65,000 homes during peak demand.

The five BESS that came online this summer include four located at solar arrays and the biggest – 137MW/206MWh – at a wind project.

Enel, the fourth largest wind and solar capacity owner in the US after NextEra Energy Resources, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, and Iberdrola-controlled Avangrid, plans to bring an additional 823MW/1.23GWh of BESS online in Texas next year. At that time, Enel will be the country’s second largest BESS capacity owner after NextEra.

If certain criteria are met, the projects could qualify for federal tax credits up to 50% of capital investment made available in the 2022 climate law.

As of 1 July, the ERCOT interconnection queue showed 110GW of BESS in various stages of application and study with about 14GW having a signed agreement for a tie to the grid.

Enel’s ability to secure interconnections amid robust competition for them in the last several years facilitates project planning and financing.

LevelTen Energy, which manages the world’s largest online hub for renewable energy buyers, sellers, advisors, asset owners, and financiers, said second quarter ERCOT BESS transactions on its platform slowed in the second quarter.

It suggested ERCOT’s active BESS market appears to have moved into oversupply given 3.5GW of capacity in operation plus signed interconnection agreements and a shallow market for ancillary service revenue.

Recent acquisition deals are focused on projects with a commercial operation date no later than mid-2025.