Largest North American battery park became operational in December 2012

The 24 MWh battery storage park developed by Duke Energy Renewables to store power generated by the nearby Notrees 153 MW wind farm in west Texas became operational in December 2012.  The project was announced in 2009 and is supported by a matching a $22 million grant from the US Department of Energy (DOE) which is part of the DOE Office of Electricity Distribution and Energy Reliability (OE) effort to modernize the electricity grid
while enhancing security and reliability of the infrastructure.  The battery park is comprised of 24 one MWh modules.  All the electricity generated from the facility will be sold by Xtreme Power to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT).

Duke Energy is currently working with the Energy Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to determine how best to use the faciity in stabilizing the grid, either to dispatch stored energy to increase frequency or absorb energy to decrease it. 

Performance data will be collected from the battery storage system by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to help assess the broader potential for deployment of storage solutions. Sandia National Laboratory will analyze technical and economic data. The results will shared publically through the DOE Smart Grid Information Clearinghouse.

China announced a 36 MWh battery park in May 2012.

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss has more than 20 years experience in the geospatial software industry and 15 years experience developing enterprise geospatial solutions for the utilities, communications, and public works industries. His particular interests include the convergence of BIM, CAD, geospatial, and 3D. In recognition of his efforts to evangelize geospatial in vertical industries such as utilities and construction, Geoff received the Geospatial Ambassador Award at Geospatial World Forum 2014. Currently Geoff is Principal at Between the Poles, a thought leadership consulting firm. From 2001 to 2012 Geoff was Director of Utility Industry Program at Autodesk Inc, where he was responsible for thought leadership for the utility industry program. From 1999 to 2001 he was Director of Enterprise Software Development at Autodesk. He received one of ten annual global technology awards in 2004 from Oracle Corporation for technical innovation and leadership in the use of Oracle. Prior to Autodesk Geoff was Director of Product Development at VISION* Solutions. VISION* Solutions is credited with pioneering relational spatial data management, CAD/GIS integration, and long transactions (data versioning) in the utility, communications, and public works industries. Geoff is a frequent speaker at geospatial and utility events around the world including Geospatial World Forum, Where 2.0, MundoGeo Connect (Brazil), Middle East Spatial Geospatial Forum, India Geospatial Forum, Location Intelligence, Asia Geospatial Forum, and GITA events in US, Japan and Australia. Geoff received Speaker Excellence Awards at GITA 2007-2009.

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