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Texas Pioneers Energy Storage in Giant Battery (National Geographic News)
crossing and for them to lose computers was not a good option,” said Calvin Crowder, Presidio, Texas, has one link to p r e s i d e n t o f E l e c t r i c U.S. electrical power, stretching Transmission Texas, LLC, a some 60 miles (100 kilometers) j o i n t v e n t u r e b e t w e e n from Marfa in the high desert to s u b s i d i a r i e s o f A m e r i c a n the banks of the Rio Grande. Electric Power and Warren Built in 1948, the transmission Buffett’s electricity company, line was around when Rock B e r k s h i r e H a t h a w a y ’ s Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and M i d A m e r i c a n E n e r g y James Dean walked Marfa’s H o l d i n g s . streets while filming the epic ETT is just completing movie Giant. installation of a system designed E l e c t r i c a l s t o r m s e r u p t to resolve Presidio’s power frequently in the rugged woes. expanse between Marfa, nearly Texas-Size Battery one mile (1,600 meters) above The hoped-for remedy is a sea level, and Presidio, on the battery, a Texas-size battery, Mexico border, “one of the which could eventually end up hottest places in the nation,” in playing an important role in the words of city administrator wider use of green power Brad Newton. “It really creates generation such as solar and a s i t u a t i o n u n i q u e t o o u r wind. The U.S. $25 million geographic area,” he says. system, which is now charging Reliance on a single aging, and is set to be dedicated April transmission line in this hostile 8, will be the largest use of this terrain has made life in Presidio energy storage technology in the different than in most of the United States. United States. The four-megawatt sodiumChronic power outages and sulfur (NaS) battery system electrical fluctuations have been consists of 80 modules, 8,000 the norm. pounds (3,600 kilograms) each, And sweltering in the dark has constructed by the Japanese been only part of the problem. firm NGK-Locke. They were The situation wreaks havoc with s h i p p e d t o L o n g B e a c h , electrical devices, causing California, in December and computer systems to reset transported to Texas aboard 24 frequently—an annoyance in trucks. homes and a constant worry for The cost of the battery system authorities. includes $10 million just to “The area is a significant border construct the building in which Submitted at 3/25/2010 6:57:29 PM
it will be housed and the new substation it requires. Sodium-sulfur batteries are not as well known as the nowubiquitous lithium-ion batteries that power laptops and cell phones, but they are by no means new. Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Donald Sadoway explains that the technology was, in fact, invented in the United States. “It was used by Ford in an electric vehicle in the early 1990s,” he said. “The allelectric Ford Escort was powered by sodium–sulfur batteries made in Heidelberg, Germany. "It worked, but the technology was too expensive. They made maybe a hundred that were not for sale.” (Sadoway, a battery design specialist, actually got a chance to drive the concept vehicle, which he recalls was “a real blast.”) American Electric Power (AEP) first tested the NaS system for stationary power at its Dolan Technology Center near Columbus, Ohio, and deployed it in a demonstration project in Gahanna, Ohio, in 2002. Since then, AEP has installed four NaS battery systems in West Virginia, Indiana, and Ohio. NaS looked like a solution that would work for Presidio. Also, it is part of a larger
modernization project that includes plans for a new 60-mile (100-kilometer), 69-kilovolt transmission line from Marfa to Presidio at a cost of $45 million, to be completed by 2012. As such, the cost of the battery system will be shared by all 22 million customers on the Texas electricity grid. Members of the state legislature, Presidio officials, ETT and AEP Texas petitioned the grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, to approve the project, labeling it a certified need. The plan also needed and obtained approval of the Public Utility Commission of Texas. Even when the transmission line is modernized, Crowder said the battery system will still be essential for Presidio. Despite the latest in lightning arrestors, controls, and switching, the new line will not be immune to the fierce storms spawned on the plains. Fast Response Time The battery system will have a fast response time to address voltage fluctuations and momentary outages. And it also is designed to supply uninterrupted power for up to eight hours. This is not only crucial in the event of an outage, but it will assure that the lights stay on if Presidio needs to tap power from across the border in Mexico, as the city sometimes does during emergency
situations—a switchover process that can take hours. Crowder predicted that as those who are in the business of generating energy watch what ETT is doing, there will be “more and larger deployments in use of battery storage for wind and solar.” “This type of technology as a utility application is still fairly new in the United States,” Crowder said. “Japan has been at this for a decade or so. As we learn more and as the price becomes less through mass production, there will be opportunities for wind and solar to improve the economics of their power.” MIT's Sadoway, a professor in materials chemistry, said that many of NGK’s systems, indeed, are in use in Japan. But he said batteries as backup for solar is still far too expensive. “I’m excited that people are embracing battery storage at this scale,” Sadoway said. “Once utilities get experience at what a large storage facility can do for them, eventually we will come up with technology that is costeffective and a benefit for all.” Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.