40 MW Big Banger Battery Energy Storage System for Alaska's GVEA

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). At the end of the first quarter of 2003 the first string of batteries will be energized at the Golden Valley Electric Association's (GVEA) battery energy storage system (BESS). The project, located in Fairbanks, Alaska, will lay claim to being the world's most powerful BESS in the world in terms of MW output.

The first of the total of 13,760 liquid electrolyte-filled, nickel-cadmium battery cells have begun delivery from SAFT (Bagnolet, France) after construction at their Swedish facilities. This followed site work and rack assembly work by ABB (ZURCH;ABBZn, STOCKHOLM:ABB, NYSE;ABB0) (Stockholm, Sweden, Zurich, Switzerland) on the primary design and controls engineering, and City Electric the general contractor for ABB. The $35 million funding for the project comes from the GVEA.

When the first phase of the battery assembly is completed with four strings operational in December 2003 the battery will be able to provide 26 MW of power for 15 minutes under potentially brutal temperature conditions. If necessary, under extreme demand, it will be able to provide up to 40 MW for a shorter period. GVEA anticipates up to a 68% reduction in power supply types of outages when the battery is available. Fifteen minutes is long enough for the co-op to start up and bring local back-up generation online. Other benefits will include reduced air emissions through reduced spinning reserve operations and improved power supply quality.

Each battery cell is roughly the size of a PC and will weigh 165 lbs and the total BESS installation will weigh 1,500 tons with an anticipated life of between 20 to 30 years. The BESS installation will have a footprint of 2,000 square meters.

With the concrete bases poured and the rack installations finished a recent 7.9 (Richter scale) earthquake saw the installation pass stringent seismic requirements with flying colors. An advanced forklift has arrived. It is a narrow aisle machine specially adapted for installing, changing and watering the batteries. The forklift tracks a wire guidance system, cut into the floor, which greatly increases the speed with which it can move around in the aisles without risking collisions with the racks or batteries. Weekly battery deliveries of batteries will continue through to complete set up in the second half of 2003.

Work on the adjacent Wilson substation is being completed with foundations and steel supports in place. Completion of relay panels and wiring work will take place early in 2003. The substation will be the tie point for the Northern Intertie and the BESS and the GVEA's existing 138 kilovolt transmission line.

It is planned to add two more battery strings to the installation when the Healy clean coal plant becomes operational. The two final strings allow for the capacity of the BESS to be maintained over time as the batteries deteriorate and a string needs to be replaced. With all six strings utilized the BESS will then have that maximum '40 MW for 15 minutes' boost available, on which the claims of 'most powerful' are based. Other BESSs may put out 10 MW for 6 hours giving a 60 MW battery rating where GVEA's will only be able to put out 9 MW over the same period (54 MW) but Golden Valley puts a premium on the availability of a big bang of emergency power for a shorter time.

Advanced energy storage systems are seen as a means to ensure that power is readily available during electricity shortages and supply fluctuations. In today's digital economy billions of dollars can be lost during power interruptions. With these situations in mind the US Department of Energy's (DOE) energy storage systems program is working with the industry to minimize costs incurred from power quality and reliability problems; to increase technology choices in deregulated, competitive electricity markets and to increase the value of renewable and distributed resources.

By 2005, the program's goals are to determine industry interest in a quantitative study of US transmission power quality and reliability, to complete R&D and testing of a 400 kWh advanced battery energy storage system, and to complete R&D and testing of a prototype storage system to verify performance improvements.

Then by 2010 the program aims to complete R&D and testing of a 5 MW transmission power quality storage system and to install and test mega storage systems (of more than 10 MW capacity) in partnership with industry.