The Center for the Commercialization of Electric Technologies chose Samsung SDI, a unit of Samsung, and Xtreme Power to install a 1MW/1MWh Lithium Ion based battery energy storage system system at the Reese Technology Center in Lubbock, Texas as part of a Smart Grid Demonstration Project.
The $27 million demonstration project jointly funded by center partners and the U.S. Department of Energy as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 managed by the center. The project is known as Discovery Across Texas, Technology Solutions for Wind Integration in ERCOT.
The energy storage system will be owned and operated by South Plains Electric Cooperative (SPEC) as one of several project technologies to serve the SGDP objectives of wind integration.
The Samsung SDI and Xtreme Power system will be connected to SPEC’s distribution grid at the Reese Technology Center as part of an ongoing wind technology program managed by GroupNIRE and Texas Tech University. The energy storage system will focus on combing utility scale energy storage with wind energy.
Potential uses for the system include mitigating intermittent fluctuations of a number of nearby wind turbines, regulating the distribution bus voltage, serving as spinning reserve, and providing frequency support during the loss of generation.
The project marks the first order for the newly formed Samsung SDI / Xtreme Power alliance. Coupling Samsung SDI’s Lithium Manganese Oxide (LMO) battery with Xtreme Power’s Xtreme Active Control Technology (XACT) the two firms have partnered to create an optimal energy storage solution for renewable integration and grid support.
Samsung SDI produces more than 1 billion lithium ion battery cells annually. Automobile companies in the U.S. and Europe in their electric vehicles are using the same battery.
This technology together with XACT’s millisecond response time will enable renewable generation to attain higher levels of penetration on the grid, as well as supply grid support services, such as frequency response, voltage support and ramp rate control. Xtreme Power and Samsung SDI will focus on key markets seeking to realize renewable energy goals and promote a cleaner electric grid.
