500MW BESS would connect to SCE & Big Creek hydro
-October 25,2022-
The intersection of one of the biggest hydro power projects in California with a transmission conduit to Los Angeles comes through Visalia at a place just east of town – SCE’s Rector substation.
That’s also where a farmer with nearly 50 acres wants to pull fruit and nut trees to contract his land to a NY renewable energy developer with a plan to build what appears to be one of the nation’s largest battery storage facilities.
At 500 MW, this half-mile field of some 400 battery modules called a Battery Energy Storage System – BESS – will receive power from the giant Big Creek hydroelectric complex in the Sierra to store and then ship to Edison customers when they need it the most. Big Creek’s power output is 1000 MW from falling water at 27 dams with familiar names like Shaver and Huntington Lakes. First generating power in 1913, this network of dams has inspired the nickname, “The Hardest Working Water in the World.” Seems some of these hardworking watts will rest in Visalia before being put to use at customer’s homes and businesses, giving SCE flexibility.
Power stored at the new BESS facility could also come from one or more of the many big solar projects in the Central Valley.
This advanced battery storage facility will have 12 hour storage capability resulting in a power rating of 6000MWh. Currently, the title of world’s biggest battery storage project is held by Vistra Energy’s Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility (400MW/1,600MWh), in California. This proposed BESS would-be three times that output.
Proposing the Visalia area project is New York-based Terra-Gen who owns the big Alta Wind project in Kern County with four BESS projects in that county under construction.
As of October 26 Terra-Gen will be in front of the Tulare County Planning Commission to seek approval for construction of this project.
2024 construction
Terra-Gen spokesman for the project Pete Lai says the company hopes to begin construction of the Visalia project in 2024 and switch it on by 2025.
Not just for LA, the new power storage units will be beneficial for a stable flow of electricity for the Valley including in emergencies like fire or power outage. Lai says the long duration could supply power to parts of state over extended periods, a feature the PUC has been looking for. There are just a few of these longer duration BESS projects.
The battery storage projects take utility-scale solar or wind and store the power after the sun goes down to supply peak demand all over California in the late day to bed-time hours.
Growing renewables
Farmers in the Kaweah watershed are being encouraged to idle some of their land to reduce groundwater pumping, as they are all over the Valley,a choice farmers are making increasingly is to grow renewable energy on these lands.
The nearly 50-acre site is currently an operating walnut, persimmon, and pomegranate farm with an existing house on the western side of the property parcel adjacent to Road 148. Project facilities will be constructed within the existing orchard, and rows of trees will be maintained along the western side of the site to minimize views to project facilities from public roadways. says a county report. The site is less than a mile from either Visalia and Farmersville city limits.
The County staff report says 4-Creeks ESS, LLC (Terra-Gen) proposes to construct, own, and operate the 4 Creeks Energy Storage Project, a lithium-ion battery energy storage facility capable of delivering up to 500 MW of energy storage capacity with up to a 12-hour capacity rating. The project will interconnect to the existing, adjacent Southern California Edison (SCE) 230kV Rector Substation via an approximate 700-foot generation tie-line (gen-tie).
Safety issue
The staff report says the proposed development would not be expected to result in a cumulatively considerable contribution to impacts in the area.
Asked about safety, Peter Lai says this project will be built to a high standard of fire protection, noting that lithium-ion units are being installed all over the world at places like hospitals and schools. “We will have multiple layers of safety systems and monitoring by humans on a 24 hour basis.”
Tulare County is already home to what will be the nation’s largest solar farm near Terra Bella/Ducor. Rexford 1 covers more than 3,600 acres and will generate 700 megawatts of electricity and another 700 megawatts of battery storage. Recently the Planning Commission approved plans for Rexford 2, on 1,200 acres generating around 500MW with an additional 500 megawatts of battery storage.This project is owned by Avantus, formerly known as 8 minute Solar Energy.
Big money
The applicant on this Visalia project – Terra-Gen recently completed US$969 million project financing for the second phase of Edwards Sanborn Solar-plus-Storage facility in Kern County which will bring it to 3,291MWh of energy storage capacity.The next phase is expected to come online in the third quarter of 2023.
These high dollar amounts make it clear the4 -Creeks Visalia project must be valued in the hundreds of millions as well .Peter Lai did not have a dollar value for the project’.
California is in a hurry to complete more battery storage.SCE themselves have built 2.3 GW of storage today with plans to have another 2.8 GW in place by 2024, says a spokesperson. A gigawatt is equal to one billion watts or 1000MW.
Making the modules in California is itself gearing up in nearby Lathrop, near Stockton, where Tesla now has a dedicated Megapack grid-scale BESS gigafactory. The facility is currently ramping up to its planned 40GWh annual production capacity to help meet plenty of demand.
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Caption” A large Tesla-built BESS
also: Location of the 4-Creeks BESS
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