Colorado Springs Utilities just cut the ribbon on the city’s first battery energy storage system, aimed at increasing efficient, reliable, and resilient energy on the grid.
Located just outside of Falcon in El Paso County, the new Jackson Fuller storage facility contains dozens of batteries the size of shipping containers enclosed within a fire-retardant wall.
Colorado Springs Utilities CEO Travas Deal said the battery storage will not only help the city meet clean energy targets set by the state, but will also be more cost-effective for rate payers and address growing electricity demands.
“We think batteries are going to be the future for us, and as they continue to develop technology and how utilities utilize them, I think we are going to see more cost benefits to rate payers than what we can even understand at this point,” he said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday.
The batteries were installed and will be maintained by NextEra Energy, a Florida-based company with numerous battery storage, wind farm, and solar farm projects across Colorado.
"The batteries have a holding capacity of 100 megawatt(-hours) of energy– enough to power 200,000 homes for four hours during times of peak energy demand,” Jim Shandalov, CEO of NextEra, said.
The batteries will be able to store excess energy produced during times of lesser demand for times of increased electricity use, such as in the heat of the day or evening hours.
Shandalov said the batteries can store energy from multiple sources—not just one. They can capture excess power generated by solar, wind, natural gas, and other fossil fuel sources, depending on which is producing a surplus at any given time.
Unlike typical setups where storage is tied to a specific source, such as a solar farm, the Jackson Fuller plant will support energy storage across the entire Colorado Springs Utilities system, allowing for a more flexible and efficient use of available power, said Deal.
The state of Colorado requires an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from power by 2030, yet at the same time, Colorado Springs Utilities also needs to increase its power output to meet increased electricity demand.
Deal said the batteries, “will be one of the tools that can be used to try to meet those state mandates and try to do it the most cost-effective way possible," while also working to meet that demand.
The batteries at the Jackson Fuller storage facility have been up and running since May. Deal said CSU is already seeing benefits.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the correct unit of measure of megawatt-hours in a quote.
