SCE contracts 125 MW for Orange County clean energy pilot

Orange Country lights. Author: Alejandro Rdguez. License: Creative Commons, Attribution 2.0 Generic.

Southern California Edison (SCE) last week signed contracts for 125 MW of power from battery storage, “demand response” and solar-plus-storage as part of its Preferred Resources Pilot.

The project’s goal is to study whether the combination of clean energy resources can supply electricity to a densely populated area as reliably as a traditional power plant. SCE’s pilot is taking place in parts of Orange County and involves thousands of homes and businesses.

The company, owned by Edison International (NYSE:EIX), signed contracts with six developers for the 125 MW of capacity, details of which are available in the table. DR stands for demand response.

Developer	Product	MW	Years	On-line date
Advanced Microgrid Solutions	DR from energy conservation & battery storage	40	15	Jan 2019 - Jan 2020
Convergent	Battery storage	35	20	Dec 2019
Hecate	Battery storage	15	10	Jan 2020
NextEra	Battery storage	10	15	Jan 2020
NextEra	DR from energy conservation & battery storage	10	15	June 2018 - June 2019
NRG	Hydrid of solar & battery storage	10	15	April 2019 - Aug 2019
Swell	DR from battery storage	5	15	June 2019

“This pilot is helping us move forward in development of a grid of the future that will support use of clean energy technologies and help us meet our state’s environmental goals,” said Colin Cushnie, SCE vice president for Energy Procurement and Management.

These 125 MW of new contracts add to 136 MW of “preferred” clean energy resources that have already been acquired for the pilot. The multiyear study is to determine whether such preferred resources (solar, wind, battery storage, energy efficiency and energy conservation) can be used to offset the increasing demand for electricity in Orange County.

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