Calgary: AltaGas Ltd. formally announced on January 27 the entry into commercial operation of its Pomona Energy Storage Facility at the site of its existing Pomona generation facility in the East Los Angeles Basin of Southern California. At 20 megawatts of electricity storage capacity, the company says it is currently the largest battery storage facility in operation in North America.
Construction of the lithium-ion battery system was completed in less than four months, which ranks as one of the fastest deployments of battery storage capacity on this scale in the industry to date.
A technician works at Altagas' Pomona storage battery bank. Photo courtesy AltaGas
In August 2016, AltaGas' subsidiary, AltaGas Pomona Energy Storage Inc., signed a 10-year Energy Storage Resource Adequacy Purchase Agreement with Southern California Edison for 20 MW of energy storage at AltaGas' existing Pomona facility. Under the terms of the ESA, AltaGas will provide SCE with 20 MW of resource adequacy capacity for a continuous four-hour period, which represents the equivalent of 80 MWh of energy discharging capacity. AltaGas will receive fixed monthly resource adequacy payments under the ESA and will retain the rights to earn additional revenue from the energy and ancillary services provided by the lithium-ion batteries.
Commercial operations of the Facility under the terms of the ESA began on December 31, 2016. AltaGas' other assets in California include six natural gas-fired power generating facilities, as well as development projects. AltaGas is an energy infrastructure company with a focus on natural gas, power and regulated utilities.