April 1, 2021: Mobile and modular energy firm Aggreko said on March 30 it will install the first grid-stabilizing battery in Turkey. Just 500kW/500kWh in size, the battery will deliver system services to help the distribution system operator enhance grid stability. While being first deployed at a substation near Alaca, the modularity of the system…

April 1, 2021: Power firm Hunt Energy Network and asset management firm Manulife on March 22 launched a joint venture that aims to manage a portfolio of 500MW of distribution-level energy storage assets in ERCOT (the Electric Reliability Council of Texas) that came under fire during the blackouts this February. The joint venture will be…

April 1, 2021: India’s first grid-connected community BESS was on March 27 switched on in Delhi, courtesy of Tata Power-DDL and Nexcharge, The relatively small 150kW/528kWh container-based system has been provided to utility Tata Power-DDL by the Leclanché/Exide Industries joint venture Nexcharge, which was formed in 2018. It will manage peak loads and voltage regulation…

April 1, 2021:  The mountainous rural community of Castañer in Puerto Rico has been selected by Pathstone Corp and the Solar Foundation to have a minigrid installed for businesses in the area. The solar and battery system is being developed with the help of the Microgrid Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico and a grant…

April 1, 2021: The UK National Grid has agreed to buy Western Power Distribution from US firm PPL Holdings for $7.8 billion as it sells Narragansett Electric, a Rhode Island gas network owned by the UK company, to PPL for $3.8 billion, it announced on March 18. Later this year the National Grid will also…

April 1, 2021: The US Energy Storage Association has welcomed US president Joe Biden’s ‘American Jobs Plan’, announced on March 31, which includes investment plans that should boost energy storage deployment at what the ESA says is an ‘unprecedented scale’. “From factory to grid frontline communities, it has the policies needed to achieve our goal…

April 1, 2021: More than 100,000 households in Cameroon could be connected to microgrids based on solar plus battery storage in the first feasibility study of its kind in the country, the US Trade and Development Agency said on March 25. California-based lithium battery designer and manufacturer SimpliPhi Power will provide the batteries to Renewable…

April 1, 2021: Australia’s Renewable Energy Agency has conditionally approved up to A$47 million ($36 million) to fund the first pumped hydro plant to be installed in Australia for almost 40 years, ARENA confirmed on March 24. The K2-Hydro 250MW/2,000MWh PHES project, at the former Kidston gold mine in north Queensland, will turn the old…

April 1, 2021: Computer giant Apple announced on March 31 it was boosting its presence in the energy storage sector with one of the largest battery projects in the US, a 240MWh system in the California Flats. The battery will store electricity generated by its 130MW solar farm and will be capable of storing enough…

March 18, 2021: Utility EnergyAustralia on March 10 said it would bring forward the closure of its Yallourn coal power station in Victoria by four years and replace it with a four-hour 350MW battery by 2026. The 100-year-old coal station was going to be closed in 2032, but the utility has decided to retire it…