Arizona grid gets 200 MW Tesla battery storage boost
Utility Salt River Project and EDP Renewables North America subsidiary Flatland Storage are launching the Flatland Energy Storage Project to help meet the state’s energy demands.
Arizona’s grid is getting a major boost with a 200 MW Tesla lithium-ion battery energy storage system.
Utility Salt River Project (SRP) and EDP Renewables North America (EDPR NA) subsidiary Flatland Storage are partnering to launch the Flatland Energy Storage Project to help meet the state’s growing energy demands.
The project in south-central Arizona near Coolidge, which will use Tesla Megapack 2XL lithium-ion battery storage, has a capital investment of more than USD 271 million and is expected to come online in 2025.
The system will have a capacity of 200 MW/800 MWh, which is sufficient to power 45,000 homes for four hours during peak demand, according to a report by Electrek.
The batteries absorb excess energy when demand is lower and store it to use when demand peaks. The project is also expected to save more than 169 million gallons of water each year compared to traditional energy generation.
SRP and EDPR NA have already collaborated on the Brittlebush Solar Park project, which supplies 200 MW of solar power to SRP customers.
“Battery energy storage is an essential piece of SRP’s plan to decarbonize our portfolio and maximize the amount of renewable energy delivered to our customers,” Bobby Olsen, SRP’s chief planning, strategy and sustainability executive, said.
“We’re excited to be partnering with SRP on the largest utility-scale storage project in the EDP Group’s global portfolio to date. Storage is key to modernizing the US power grid and is a requisite in accelerating the adoption of renewable energy, while boosting grid reliability and resiliency,” said Sandhya Ganapathy, CEO of EDP Renewables North America.
