Advanced lithium-ion battery maker EnerDel is ready to enter the utility-scale energy storage market. Its battery technology will support a major new smart grid program announced yesterday by the US Department of Energy.
EnerDel will build batteries for five one-megawatt power systems used by Portland General Electric (PGE). The goal: to help manage peak demand and smooth the variations in power from renewable sources like wind and solar.
"Energy storage is a key component of the smart grid, as well as a crucial tool for enhancing both the reliability and the availability of renewable but often intermittent energy sources like wind and solar," said Cyrus Ashtiani, Chief Technology Officer at EnerDel. We expect this sector to be a major growth area for the battery industry. “
Ashtiani said “This program is a breakthrough opportunity for EnerDel to prove the capabilities of Our systems in partnership with one of the most innovative electric utilities in the country."
Each of the five EnerDel battery systems will store enough energy to power roughly 400 average American homes simultaneously for up to an hour at a time.
Technology and Innovation Mission
EnerDel batteries utilize the same core chemistry as that are used in the emerging new generation of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. The new systems will be deployed in concert with a variety of both hardware and software solutions, all designed to improve system reliability during peak demand loads.
According to EnerDel, “Using the chemistries of our cell designs as building blocks, EnerDel ise conceiving and developing energy storage with battery management systems to support and advance the next generation of power grids, called “smart grids” for their use of digital technology to route and regulate power. They are developing three basic systems, classified by range capability: the residential system would operate on a single structure; the community system would serve a neighborhood; and the metropolitan would perform on an urban scale.”
EnerDel also indicates that “They anticipate developing interfaces to regulate power and maintain a crucial balance between supply and usage: which would mitigate the stress of mass usage during peak activity periods and compensate when power input dips while usage is still strong. These systems should also provide a short-term Uninterruptible Power Source (UPS) that would kick in when an outage occurs so that the consumer’s service remains uninterrupted while the problem is addressed”.
Details
The PGE project will be built in Salem, OR, where it will serve both residential and commercial customers. Equipment will be installed at 15 sites over the next two years, after which developers will spend two to three years testing system performance under wide variety of geographic and meteorological conditions.
This Northwest regional program will serve up to 60,000 utility customers in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.
Funding
This program is one of 16 announced by DOE, which is providing half the $178 million funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The balance will come from utilities and other participants.
About Ener1, Inc.:
EnerDel is part of Ener1, Inc. ( HEV). Based in Indianapolis, IN, the company has one of the most advanced lithium-ion battery manufacturing facilities in the world, and the only one of its kind in the United States.
Ener1 develops and manufactures compact, high performance lithium-ion batteries to power the next generation of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and pure electric vehicles. The publicly traded company (NASDAQ:
HEV) is led by an experienced team of engineers and energy system experts at its EnerDel subsidiary located in Indiana.
In addition to the automobile market, applications for Ener1 lithium-ion battery technology include the military, grid storage and other growing markets. Ener1 also develops commercial fuel cell products through its EnerFuel subsidiary and nanotechnology-based materials and manufacturing processes for batteries and other applications through its NanoEner subsidiary.