Today, Plus Power announced that its 150 MW / 600 MWh Corazon Energy Storage project was awarded a 20-year contract by Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM), subject to regulatory approvals, in response to the utility’s 2026-2028 Generation Resources Request for Proposals. The RFP was issued in 2022 and sought projects that will help serve growing energy demand in New Mexico. PNM filed with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission for approval of the project on Nov. 22, 2024.

Salt River Project is deploying two new industrial-scale battery storage systems, including the state’s largest so far, to absorb excess energy when it’s not needed for release at later periods when demand spikes. The 250 MW Sierra Estrella facility, on nine acres in Avondale, became the largest standalone battery system in Arizona when it went online earlier this month, SRP said. It will store enough energy to power more than 56,000 residences for four hours. The 90 MG Superstition Energy facility in Gilbert will store enough power for 20,000 homes for four hours.

Salt River Project (SRP) and Plus Power today celebrated two new grid-charged battery storage systems, Sierra Estrella Energy Storage and Superstition Energy Storage. Together, these facilities will add 340 megawatts (MW) / 1,360 megawatt-hours (MWh) of additional battery storage capacity to SRP’s system – enough to power 76,000 residential homes for a four-hour period. The batteries will absorb excess energy when customer demand is lower and store it for use during times of peak demand.

Today, Plus Power^™ announced the close of construction and term financing for the first major utility-scale standalone battery storage system in construction on the New England grid, among other notable firsts for standalone storage in the region. The Cranberry Point facility, located in Carver, Massachusetts, will help stabilize the electric grid during the region’s increasing number of extreme weather events while helping to suppress volatile wholesale prices for ratepayers.

Plus Power™ announced the closing of an $82 million tax equity investment from Morgan Stanley for the 90 MW / 360 MWh Superstition Energy Storage facility in Gilbert, Arizona. Plus Power, which leads the sector for developing, owning, and operating standalone energy storage, has raised a total of approximately $2 billion for five total facilities in Arizona and Texas since October 2023. These investments will enable Plus Power to bring the facilities online by summer 2024, helping stabilize electric grids in the Southwest during extreme weather.

Today, Plus Power™ announced the completion of approximately $98 million in tax equity investment for its 200 MW / 400 MWh Ebony Energy Storage facility in Comal County, Texas. The investment from Greenprint Capital Management will help the project stabilize ERCOT’s power system during dynamic summer demand and cold winter storms. 

This week, as projected cold temperatures in Texas reached almost Winter Storm Uri level, ERCOT faced eye-popping record demand again—and 15 GW of unavailable resources according to ERCOT—but the grid didn’t go into rolling blackouts or fail. The reasons include Plus Power’s third utility-scale battery plant to go online, now the largest operating standalone battery energy storage facility in Texas: Rodeo Ranch in Pecos.

The utility-scale battery farm kicked off commercial operations shortly before the holidays. It has a storage capacity of 565 megawatt-hours of electricity, making it the largest storage project in the state.

Construction is set to begin this spring in Gorham on one of New England’s largest battery storage projects. 

Brandon Keefe and Josh Goldstein join Todd Alexander to discuss stand-alone battery storage. They talk about why stand-alone is the energy storage approach they pursued, the future of such energy storage projects, how investors have responded and more.

Plus Power LLC announced completion of $1.8 billion in new financing for standalone battery storage, including the largest single such project financing to date, to help stabilize the U.S. electrical grid.

Plus Power has completed a $1.8 billion financing for its standalone battery storage pipeline to help stabilize the grid.

The Houston-based developer of stand-alone battery systems announced a series of deals with major lenders and investors to bring online more than 1 GW at five projects under construction in Arizona and Texas before next summer.

The Texas Tribune explains how battery energy storage, including Plus Power’s Gambit Energy Storage in Angleton, helped Texas avoid rolling blackouts throughout the record-breaking summer.  “This summer, batteries have mostly sold their power to meet high demand around 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. when solar production winds down as the sun sets but temperatures are still high. Energy consultant and battery advocate Doug Lewin calls that the “white knuckle part of the evening” for ERCOT, when batteries’ relatively small contribution to the grid can still be “determinative” to meeting what has been record-high demand during Texas’ second-hottest summer ever.”

Houston media reports on Plus Power’s establishment of our headquarters in The Woodlands, Texas. “One of Plus Power’s storage facilities is the 100-megawatt Gambit project, which opened two years ago in Angleton. The nearly eight-acre facility supports power supplies for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which runs the power grid for 90 percent of Texas.”

The National Law Review on the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities approval for Plus Power’s Cranberry Point Energy Storage in Carver, MA.  “Per the Order, the Department also found that the projects are necessary and will provide public benefits, and that the alternative sites evaluated, or no-build alternatives, are inferior to the proposed locations and plans. The Department also evaluated public health and safety issues related to potential fire risks at the proposed project sites, details about battery operating technology, water and wetlands impacts and issues pertaining to land use.”

Officials from Arizona public power utility Salt River Project, Plus Power LLC and the City of Avondale, Ariz., on April 12 gathered for a ceremonial groundbreaking to kick off construction mobilization at a new large-scale battery facility.

SRP and Houston-based Plus Power LLC, joined by officials from Avondale, held a ceremonial ground breaking at the previously announced battery facility Wednesday. The new Sierra Estrella energy storage facility will hold electricity produced during low-use periods and release it when demand is higher, helping to power more than 56,000 average-sized homes for a four-hour period.

Local Phoenix independent newsmedia covering the groundbreaking of our new large-scale battery facility, Sierra Estrella Energy Storage, with Salt River Project and officials from the city of Avondale.

Plus Power COO Julie Blunden joined Garret Hering’s Supercharged virtual webinar to discuss the opportunities and the considerable challenges ahead for battery storage. “It will be a while before we have fully domestic batteries for energy storage—but that may not be the requirement.”

Garrett Hering on a second great piece on the unprecedented volumes of battery storage” in development: “roughly 57 GW of large-scale energy storage resources are planned for connection to the U.S. grid between 2022 and 2025.”  “Over the next three years, I think we’re in a perpetual short,” said Brandon Keefe, CEO of Houston-based developer Plus Power, which is offering its near-term excess battery cell orders to fellow developers short on supplies. “Those who already went out and procured supply are going to have successful projects and those who don’t [have batteries] are going to have issues.”

Garrett Hering on the coming wave of energy storage deployments, starting with Plus Power’s Kapolei Energy Storage facility in Hawaii and our 250-MW Sierra Estrella Energy Storage and 90-MW Superstition Energy Storage facilities for Salt River Project. The piece notes that Plus Power has secured an excess of battery supply—6.5 GWh—to serve our projects coming online through 2025 and more. “The next year is going to be a game of musical chairs of those who have supply and those who don’t,” Keefe said. “Plus Power is talking with fellow developers in need.”

Salt River Project said Thursday that it will add two new battery storage systems that will go online in 2024 with a combined output of 340 megawatts, giving the Arizona utility company more options during times of heavy power demand.  SRP said it signed contracts with Houston-based Plus Power for the two projects, which will be built in Avondale and Gilbert.

Andrew Gomes covers the construction of Plus Power’s Kapolei Energy Storage facility: “The project by San Francisco-­based Plus Power will be the largest stand-alone energy storage system in the state.”

The KES facility will be the first of its kind in the state.

Murray Carpenter interviews State Representative Mo Terry on Maine’s electrified future: “The storage facilities that we have right now are on the smaller size, 10-15 megawatts per facility, where the one that’s coming to Gorham is hopefully going to be up to about 150 megawatts of storage,” she says. That proposed facility, Plus Power’s Cross Town Project, would be about 17 times the size of the Tesla system near East Millinocket. That’s about enough to power 150,000 Maine homes for two hours.

Congratulations to two national award winners at Plus Power. Samane Zeyghami, our Head of Analytical Solutions, was just recognized by the Energy Storage Report in their “List of Top 40 Women Leaders in Energy Storage.” And Allyson Sand, our Market Lead – Development for the Northeast, was recently recognized as one of three “Breakout Woman of the Year” awardees by the Energy Storage Association. Congratulations to Samane and Allyson!

Since early 2018, Plus has aggregated one of the most unique standalone storage portfolios in the United States. Plus has over 7,000 MW of projects across 20+ states and is active in nearly all major RTOs & markets.

Largest project financing for standalone energy storage

Video coverage of the August 11, 2021 KES Ground Blessing as aired on Hawaii’s KGMB and KHNL TV stations.

Peter Kelly-Detwiler on Plus Power’s data-driven strategies to deploy utility-scale stand alone energy storage across the U.S.

Plus Power is developing the standalone Kapolei Energy Storage (KES) project on Oahu. “With a commercial operation date of June 2022, the 185 MW KES project will help facilitate the retirement of the last coal plant in Hawaii,” Allyson Sand, a developer with Plus Power, said in an email. The island’s 180 MW coal plant, owned by AES, is set to retire in September 2022.

“At the state level, we see a lot of positive activity happening, with significant investment from the utilities and from NYISO to incorporate storage,” Sand said.