Vistra to operate 400 MW/1,600 MWh battery storage system in California

Texas-based Vistra Energy (NYSE:VST) will expand to 400 MW/1,600 MWh an energy storage system it is currently building at Moss Landing in California to create what it says will be the largest battery of its kind globally.

The company’s plan is to add 100 MW/400 MWh of additional capacity to the initially proposed 300-MW/1,200-MWh facility in Monterey County. It said in a press release on Tuesday that it has signed a 10-year resource adequacy agreement with utility Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). The expansion is one of five projects that were selected in a competitive round held by the utility earlier this year, with the contracts awaiting clearance by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).

Depending on the agency's decision, due within 120 days, Vistra expects to start building the Moss Landing Phase II facility in July and bring it online before the start of August 2021. Phase I of the project is on track to be commissioned in December 2020.

Vistra already has in place a contract with PG&E for the 300-MW Moss Landing Phase I lithium-ion battery energy storage system (BESS). Overall, its contracted storage capacity in California stands at 436.25 MW/1,745 MWh.

“Utilising our existing power plant sites allows us to cost-competitively develop renewable and battery storage assets as we rotate our power generation portfolio toward carbon-free technologies," said Vistra’s president and CEO Curt Morgan.

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