Texas-based energy company Vistra Corp. has announced that its battery energy storage plant, the largest in the state, is fully operational, NBC DFW reports.
As the long, hot summer months draw nearer, the reliability of Texas’ electrical grid is of great importance. Battery storage facilities are helping to avoid power outages when demand is high in North Texas. The plant can discharge electricity to the grid instantaneously.
With the help of the DeCordova Energy Storage Facility in Granbury, about 130,000 homes in Texas can be powered during normal grid operations by the facility’s 86 containers housing 3,000 individual battery modules.
When demand is strong, the lithium-ion battery system can store and discharge the extra electricity from the grid.
Vistra Corps’ executive vice president of development, Claudia Morrow, said, “At night, when we’re not using electricity as much and the wind farms across the Texas state are blowing, these batteries charge. As energy becomes available, they’ll recharge and then release that energy back into the grid when our clients need it most.”
She estimated that charging and discharging them could take up to an hour. In contrast to a conventional power plant that gradually increases its output, batteries can be employed as a “flip of a switch,” so to speak.
The Granbury site is considered a hybrid, meaning each of its four combustion turbines is fueled by natural gas and is backed up by diesel if natural gas is unavailable.
“I think the largest benefit is renewables, but with renewable sources, mostly with wind and the sun, you do not often have that in the volume you like. It can keep when it’s surplus and release it,” said Vistra President and CFO Jim Burke. “As long as there isn’t enough wind or sun to power the combustion turbine fueled by natural gas, we’ll be able to keep the lights on for our customers.”
Although Texas has built up a significant amount of renewable energy, it is intermittent. To offset this problem, batteries can be turned on to provide power if sunlight or wind is unavailable.
State Senator Nathan Johnson (D-Dallas) said that the grid’s stability has improved as a result.
Johnson commented that this hybrid facility is among the energy solutions that Texas needs as the population grows, adding the state should foster such innovation in alternative energy sources.
“If we incentivized dispatchable power, we can let the market figure out if it should be produced with batteries, hydrogen storage, or whatever other form we can utilize that is environmentally and economically viable,” Johnson told NBC DFW. “It’s our job as policymakers to work with the marketplace to get the results we want.”
The Granbury site underwent its first real-world test during the sweltering May heat when ERCOT advised Texans to preserve energy and numerous power facilities went offline. Morrow, who led the project, said battery tests went as planned.
Vistra’s CEO Curt Morgan said this is the second of seven facilities the company plans to bring to Texas as part of a $1 billion investment toward transitioning the electric grid to “low-to-zero carbon” resources.