Arkansas co-op adds 4.8-MW/9.6-MWh storage to its solar PV plants
Energy Toolbase today announced that it has commissioned two energy storage systems (ESS) with Today’s Power (TPI), a renewable energy company based in Little Rock, Arkansas that develops, owns, and operates renewable assets. TPI is a wholly owned subsidiary of Arkansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc. (AECI), a Little Rock-based utility service cooperative owned by 17 Arkansas electric distribution cooperatives.
The ESS projects, both sited in front-of-the-meter (FTM) and co-located with solar PV plants, have a combined system size of 4.8 megawatt (MW) / 9.6 megawatt hours (MWh).
Energy Toolbase’s Acumen EMS controls software will manage the dispatch of the Sungrow energy storage systems, which use Samsung battery modules. The Arkansas-based electrical cooperative deployed the projects to reduce yearly grid-level demand, minimize wholesale power costs, and increase grid stability for its customers.
The coop wanted the ability to have full control to manually schedule the dispatch of their storage system, which Energy Toolbase delivered via its ETB Monitor platform. The platform provides a secure, web-based portal for the customer to view real-time system performance, create alerts, and schedule dispatch commands and override events, according to Energy Toolbase, which also said it plans to launch a wider scale release of its ETB Monitor platform later this year.
Energy Toolbase provides a cohesive suite of project modeling, storage control, and asset monitoring products that enable solar and storage developers to deploy projects more efficiently. Energy Toolbase’s Acumen EMS™ controls software utilizes artificial intelligence and machine learning to optimize the value capture of energy storage systems in both behind-the-meter (BTM) and FTM settings.
“We think that this TPI project will become a template that other utilities and electric cooperatives will follow in order to extract multiple value streams from their ESS,” said Quinn Laudenslager, Senior Product Manager of Acumen EMS at Energy Toolbase. “The storage system reduces system peaks, improves stability for their customers, lowers the cost of electricity for the cooperative, and enables the asset operator to manually dispatch their battery on-demand.”
Today’s Power, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Arkansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc. (AECI), a Little Rock-based utility service cooperative owned by 17 Arkansas electric distribution cooperatives.
Source: Renewable Energy