Total installed non-hydro storage capacity in Europe reached 2.7 GWh at the end of 2018 and and between 2.8 and 3.3 GWh in 2022. This includes household systems, which comprise more than one-third of 2019-20 additions. EDF plans to have 10 GW of battery storage across Europe by 2035. In March 2020 Total launched a 25 MW/25 MWh lithium-ion battery project at Mardyck near Dunkirk, to be “the largest in France”.

The first of STEAG's six planned 15 MW lithium-ion units in a €100 million, 90 MW programme was energised in June 2016 at its Lünen coal-fired site in Germany. To qualify for commercial operation, the batteries need to respond to automated calls within 30 seconds and be capable of feed-in for a minimum of 30 minutes.

In Germany, RWE has invested €6 million in a 7.8 MW/7 MWh lithium-ion battery system at its Herdecke power station site near Dortmund, where the utility operates a pumped storage plant. It has operated since 2018.

In Germany, a 10 MW/10.8 MWh lithium-ion battery storage system was commissioned in 2015 at Feldheim, Brandenburg. It has 3360 lithium-ion modules from LG Chem in South Korea. The €13 million battery unit stores power generated by a local 72 MW wind farm and was built to stabilise the grid of TSO 50Hertz Transmission. It also participates in the weekly tendering for primary control reserve.

RWE plans a 45 MW lithium-ion battery at its Lingen and a 72 MW one at its Werne Gerstein power plants by end of 2022, mainly for FCAS. Siemens plans a 200 MW/200 MWh battery at Wunsiedel in Bavaria for energy storage and peak management. 

Dutch utility Eneco and Mitsubishi, as EnspireME, have installed a 48 MW/50 MWh lithium-ion battery in Jardelund, northern Germany. The battery is to supply primary reserve to the grid and enhance grid stability in a region with many wind turbines and grid congestion problems.

German operators of battery systems which are bid into the primary control reserve market on a weekly basis are reported to have received an average price of €17.8/MWh over 18 months to November 2016.

In Spain Acciona commissioned a wind plant with BESS in May 2017. The Acciona plant is equipped with two Samsung lithium-ion battery systems, one providing 1 MW/390 kWh and the other producing 0.7 MW/700 kWh, connected to a 3 MW wind turbine and on the grid. Both appear to have frequency response as part of their role.

In May 2016 Fortum in Finland contracted French battery company Saft to supply a €2 million megawatt-scale lithium-ion battery energy storage system for its Suomenoja power plant as part of the largest ever BESS pilot project in the Nordic countries. It will have a nominal output of 2 MW and able to store 1 MWh of electricity, to be offered to the TSO for frequency regulation and output smoothing. It is similar to the system operating in the Aube region of France, linking two wind farms, total 18 MW. Saft has deployed over 80 MW of batteries since 2012.

In the UK, battery storage was 2.4 GW/2.6 GWh by the end of 2022. A further 20.2 GW was approved, including 33 sites of 100 MW or more. Renewables energy company RES provides 55 MW of dynamic frequency response from lithium-ion battery storage, to National Grid.

In March 2020 Finland’s Wartsila won a contract to supply two 50 MW lithium-ion batteries to EDF’s Pivot Power as it embarks upon a 2 GW storage programme for a network of grid-scale batteries for ancillary grid services and electric vehicle charging. A third 50 MW battery at Southampton is from Downing LLP. EDF Energy Renewables has a 49 MW battery storage project for National Grid at EDF Energy’s West Burton site in North Yorkshire.

UK undersecretary of state for energy Amber Rudd visits the Leighton Buzzard facility in 2014 (UK Power Networks)

In Northern Ireland, US generator AES has completed a 10 MW/5 MWh energy storage array at its Kilroot power station in Carrickfergus. The system consists of over 53,000 lithium-ion batteries arranged in 136 separate nodes with control system which responds to grid changes in under a second. It is the largest advanced energy storage system in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and the only such system at transmission scale according to AES. The company wants to build the storage array up to 100 MW, providing £8.5 million in system savings per annum “by displacing out of merit thermal back up plant and facilitating fuller integration of existing renewables,” it said.

In the UK, on the Orkney Islands, a 2 MW/500 kWh lithium-ion battery storage system is operating. This Kirkwall power station uses Mitsubishi batteries in two 12.2m shipping containers, and stores power from wind turbines.

In Somerset, Cranborne Energy Storage has a 250 kW/500 kWh Tesla Powerpack lithium-ion storage system associated with a 500 kW solar PV set-up. Tesla claims that the powerpacks can be configured to provide power and energy capacity to the grid as a standalone asset, offering frequency regulation, voltage control, and spinning reserve services. The standard Tesla Industrial Powerpack unit is 50 kW/210 kWh, with 88% round-trip efficiency.

In the UK, Statoil has commissioned the design of a 1 MWh lithium-ion battery system, Batwind, as onshore storage for the 30 MW offshore Hywind project at Peterhead, Scotland. From 2018 it is to store excess production, reduce balancing costs, and allow the project to regulate its own power supply and capture peak prices through arbitrage.

North America

In November 2016 Pacific Gas & Electricity Co (PG&E) reported on an 18-month technology demonstration project to explore the performance of battery storage systems participating in California’s electricity markets. The project began in 2014 and utilized PG&E’s 2 MW/14 MWh Vaca-Dixon and 4 MW Yerba Buena sodium-sulfur battery storage systems to provide energy and ancillary services in California Independent System Operator (CAISO) markets and controlled by CAISO in that wholesale market. The $18 million Yerba Buena BESS Pilot Project was set up by PG&E in 2013 with $3.3 million support from the California Energy Commission. Vaca-Dixon BESS is associated with a PG&E solar plant in Solano County.

The PG&E report showed that batteries were still far from cost-effective, even assuming a 20-year battery life. Used for energy arbitrage (charging when price was low and discharging when price high), the 6 MWe set-up barely covered operating expenses. The margin achieved in cost of power arbitrage was consumed by the 25% power lost between cycles due to charging and discharging inefficiencies and the energy required to keep the batteries at operating temperature (300°C). The optimum use of the BESS was confirmed as frequency regulation, with batteries maintained half-charged and ready to charge or discharge as required to compensate for mismatches between generation and load. Response time is very rapid, and hence very valuable to CAISO (or any TSO). When used entirely for frequency control the 2 MW storage netted almost $35,000 per month – better than alternative uses, but still low payback for $11 million investment. Operational control proved extremely complex. PG&E reported to the California Assembly: "With California Assembly Bill 2514 and its requirements that utilities procure 1.3 gigawatts of energy storage, California ratepayers could expect to pay billions of dollars for the deployment and operations of these resources.”

In 2017, PG&E will utilize the Yerba Buena battery for another technology demonstration involving the coordination of third-party distributed energy resources (DERs) – such as residential and commercial solar – using smart inverters and battery storage, controlled through a distributed energy resource management system (DERMS).

In August 2015 GE was contracted to build a 30 MW/20 MWh lithium ion battery storage system for Coachella Energy Storage Partners (CESP) in California, 160 km east of San Diego. The 33 MW facility was completed by ZGlobal in November 2016 and will aid grid flexibility and increase reliability on the Imperial Irrigation District network by providing solar ramping, frequency regulation, power balancing and black start capability for an adjacent gas turbine.

San Diego Gas & Electric has a 30 MW/120 MWh lithium-ion BESS in Escondido, built by AES Energy Storage and consisting of 24 containers housing 400,000 Samsung batteries in almost 20,000 modules. It will supply evening peak demand, and partly replaces the Aliso Canyon gas storage 200 km north which had to be abandoned early in 2016 due to a massive leak. (It was used for peak-load gas generation.)

SDG&E's 30MW battery storage facility in Escondido, California. (Photo: San Diego Gas & Electric)

Southern California Edison is building a 100 MW/400 MWh battery installation to commission in 2021, comprising 80,000 lithium-ion batteries in containers. Another big SCE project proposed is a 20 MW/80 MWh storage for AltaGas Pomona Energy at its San Gabriel natural gas-fired plant.

A large project is Southern California Edison’s $50 million Tehachapi 8 MW/32 MWh lithium-ion battery storage project in conjunction with a 4500 MWe wind farm, using 10,872 modules of 56 cells each from LG Chem, which can supply 8 MW over four hours. In 2016 Tesla contracted to supply a 20 MW/80 MWh lithium-ion battery storage system for Southern California Edison’s Mira Loma substation, to help meet daily peak demand.

A very large battery system has been approved for Vistra’s gas-fired Moss Landing power plant in Monterey County, California. The site comprises of 256 Tesla 3 MWh Megapack units providing 182.5 MW/730 MWh. The system is upgradeable, with the contract between Tesla and PG&E suggesting that the battery could be ramped to 1.1 GWh in the future.

The 98 MW Laurel Mountain wind farm in West Virginia employs a multi-use 32 MW/8 MWh grid-connected BESS. The plant is responsible for frequency regulation and grid stability in the PJM market as well as arbitrage. The lithium-ion batteries were made by A123 Systems, and when commissioned in 2011 it was the largest lithium-ion BESS in the world.

In December 2015 EDF Renewable Energy commissioned its first BESS project in North America, with 40 MW flexible (20 MW nameplate) capacity on the PJM grid network in Illinois to participate in the regulation and capacity markets. The lithium-ion batteries and power electronics were supplied by BYD America, and consist of 11 containerized units totaling 20 MW. The company has more than 100 MW of storage projects under development in North America.

E.ON North America is installing two 9.9 MW short-duration lithium ion battery systems for its Pyron and Inadale wind farms as Texas Waves storage projects in West Texas. The purpose is mainly for ancillary services. The project follows 10 MW Iron Horse near Tucson, Arizona, adjacent to a 2 MWe solar array.

SolarCity is using 272 Tesla Powerpacks (lithium-ion storage system) for its 13 MW/ 52 MWh Kaua’i Island solar PV project in Hawaii, to meet evening peak demand. Power is supplied to Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) at 13.9 cents/kWh for 20 years. KIUC is also commissioning a project with a 28 MWe solar farm and 20 MW/100 MWh battery system.

Toshiba has supplied a large BESS for Hamilton, Ohio, comprising an array of 6 MW/ 2 MWh lithium-ion batteries. Lifetime of over 10,000 charge-discharge cycles is claimed.

Powin Energy and Hecate Energy are building two projects totalling 12.8 MW/52.8 MWh in Ontario, for the Independent Electricity System Operator. Powin’s Stack 140 battery array of 2 MWh will comprise the systems, at Kitchener (20 arrays) and Stratford (6 arrays).

A large utility-scale electricity storage is a 4 MW sodium-sulfur (NaS) battery system to provide improved reliability and power quality for the city of Presidio in Texas. It was energized early in 2010 to provide rapid back-up for wind capacity in the local ERCOT grid. Sodium-sulfur batteries are widely used elsewhere for similar roles.

In Anchorage, Alaska, a 2 MW/0.5 MWh battery system is complemented by a flywheel, to assist use of wind power.

Avista Corp in Washington state, northwest USA, is purchasing a 3.6 MW vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) to load balance with renewables.

Ontario's ISO has contracted a 2 MW zinc-iron redox flow battery from ViZn Energy Systems.

East Asia

China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) called for multiple 100 MW vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) installations by the end of 2020 (as well as a 10 MW/100 MWh supercritical compressed air energy storage system, a 10 MW/1000 MJ grade flywheel energy storage array unit, 100 MW lithium-ion battery energy storage systems, and a new type of large-capacity molten salt storage device).

In September 2022 China connected 100 MW of vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) capacity. The second phase of the project is expected to double the full capacity to 200 MW.

Rongke Power installed a 200 MW/800 MWh VRFB at Dalian, China, claiming it to be the world's largest. It is to meet peak demand, reduce curtailment from nearby wind farms, enhance grid stability. It was connected to the grid in September 2022, initially at 100 MW, but should reach 200 MW in the second phase of the project. Rongke plans 2 GW/yr factory output in the 2020s. Pu Neng in Beijing is planning large-scale production of VRFBs, and was awarded a contract in November 2017 to build a 400 MWh unit. Sumitomo supplied a 15MW/60 MWh VRFB for Hepco in Japan, commissioned in 2015.

China's VRB Energy is developing several flow cell battery projects: Qinghai province, 2 MW/10 MWh for wind integration; Hubei province, 10 MW/50 MWh PV integration growing to 100 MW/500 MWh; Lianlong province, 200 MW/800 MWh renewables integration; Jiangsu 200 MW/1000 MWh offshore wind integration.

Hokkaido Electric Power has contracted Sumitomo Electric Industries to supply a grid-scale flow battery energy storage system for a wind farm in northern Japan. This will be a 17 MW/51 MWh vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) capable of three hours storage, due online in 2022 at Abira, with design life of 20 years. Hokkaido already operates a 15 MW/60 MWh VRFB also constructed by Sumitomo Electric, in 2015.

In November 2022 CNNC began construction of China’s first nuclear generation-supported pumped hydro storage project to be powered by the six reactors under construction at Zhangzhou. The project is expected to be completed by 2028.