Large-Scale Energy Storage

Large-scale energy storage projects are fast-starting, quick-ramping, high-capacity resources that can help balance peak loads and enhance clean-energy resources’ ability to meet the needs of the electric grid. Strategic bulk-storage investments will allow us to park surplus renewable energy for times of low supply, and provide flexibility to the grid without burning fossil fuels. CEERT vigorously advocates for large-scale storage at the CAISO and in CPUC procurement rulemakings.

Recent Developments:

CEERT has continued to engage in discussions on the opportunities and advantages of long-duration storage with a broad range of stakeholders, including project developers for pumped hydro and new long-duration storage technologies, environmental and environmental-justice NGOs, and other clean-energy advocates. The CPUC’s IRP decision had contradictory findings about the need for long-duration storage and strategies for procuring it, and we are hopeful that there will be a sharper focus on the subject in the next round of the IRP.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power 100% Clean Energy Plan, which is now being developed with consulting and modeling support from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, gives significant attention to multiple long-duration storage technologies, including compressed air, renewable hydrogen, solar thermal, and molten salt storage. It also weighs imports of new pumped hydro from the Pacific Northwest and Hoover Dam.