Dive Brief:
- Ørsted is partnering with Mission Clean Energy to develop 1 GW of standalone energy storage projects in the Central and Northern regions of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s territory, Ørsted said in a Thursday news release.
- The partnership will build four grid-connected battery installations with 200 MW to 300 MW of capacity, expected discharge durations of four hours and anticipated commissioning dates around 2030, an Ørsted spokesperson told Utility Dive. Mission Clean Energy will own and lead development of the projects while Ørsted will use its capital to maintain the position of the projects in the MISO interconnection queue, according to the news release.
- “The four projects are strategically sited to meet capacity requirements and manage increasing grid volatility, with a strong emphasis on the locational benefits that they will provide,” Ørsted said Thursday.
Dive Insight:
The partnership with Mission Clean Energy is Ørsted’s first on standalone battery storage anywhere in the world, the company spokesperson said.
It comes as several states largely or entirely within MISO’s Central and Northern regions pursue 100% emissions-free electricity targets. Michigan and Minnesota are both aiming for 100% clean electricity by 2040, while Illinois has a 2050 target.
MISO anticipates a capacity shortfall of 1 GW to 3.7 GW in its Central and Northern regions as soon as next summer, the system operator said in June. Systemwide, MISO could face a capacity shortfall of as much as 14.4 GW or a surplus of up to 4.6 GW by 2030, according to its projections.
“There is an urgent need to continue and increase collaboration with our state regulators to ensure the evolving generation fleet can meet the growing demands across our footprint,” MISO CEO John Bear said in a statement accompanying the operator’s capacity projection.
Expected coal-fired power plant retirements and an influx of new renewable generation “will drive the need for storage to ensure reliability,” Ørsted’s spokesperson said.
Illinois could replace approximately 11.6 GW of retiring fossil generation by 2030 while maintaining reliability if it adds about 3 GW of battery storage and connects 7.7 GW of resources currently in its interconnection queue, the Natural Resources Defense Council said in an Aug. 1 paper.
NRDC’s findings contradict earlier PJM Interconnection estimates that Illinois would need to build $700 million in new transmission by 2030 to import power. Those estimates didn’t adequately consider the impact of new storage or clean generation assets on the Illinois grid, the NRDC paper said.
Illinois is split between MISO Central, which covers most of its land area, and PJM, which serves Chicago and surrounding counties.
“The buildout of storage is not yet as active in MISO North and Central compared to other markets in the U.S., such as ERCOT and CASIO, but it has strong potential for the future” as states in the region begin implementing storage procurement goals, Ørsted’s spokesperson said.
Some investor-owned utilities serving MISO territory are also pursuing ambitious storage procurements. DTE Energy in May issued a request for proposals for 120 MW of standalone storage as it works toward a 3 GW storage goal by 2042, more than double its current capacity.
Ørsted’s spokesperson declined to disclose the precise locations of the four new installations and noted that the commissioning timeline depends on the MISO interconnection queue process and the timing of network upgrades. The projects entered the MISO queue in April, the spokesperson said.
Ørsted’s partnership with Mission Clean Energy comes as it seeks to expand both colocated and standalone energy storage in the United States, the spokesperson said.
Ørsted has a 40-MW storage installation at Permian Solar Center in Texas and a 300-MW/1,200 MWh installation at Eleven Mile Solar Center in Arizona, the company said in the Thursday release.
