Dive Brief:
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City Utilities of Springfield, Missouri, is partnering with NorthStar, an energy storage provider owned by Swedish private equity company Altor, on a pilot energy storage project.
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The 1 MWh project will include NorthStar’s BLUE+ technology that uses thin plate lead carbon (TPLC) batteries.
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The pilot project aims to study the ability of energy storage to supplement demand during times of peak usage.
Dive Insight:
City Utilities, like many power providers, s adapting to an influx of renewable energy resources on its grid.
The project with NorthStar will enable City Utilities to explore the use of a utility-scale battery storage system and determine how well it can manage system peak loads.
“The opportunity to provide a platform for research that supports renewable integration options for our customers and potentially globally is something everyone at CU is excited about”, Scott Miller, City Utilities’ general manager, said in a statement.
The storage system will include NorthStar’s remote monitoring system that uses Bluetooth communication to aggregate and display data on a system level. The storage project is expected to be online by September 2017.