Hybrid system will be capable of powering
approximately 2,000 electric customers within PG&E’s Calistoga
microgrid for up to 48 hours (293 MWh of carbon-free energy) during
a planned outage
This Long-Duration Energy Storage System is the
first-of-its-kind and integrates a short duration battery system,
for grid forming and black start capabilities, with a long duration
fuel cells plus green liquid hydrogen storage system
System managed and dispatched by Energy Vault’s
technology-neutral Energy Management Software to optimize
performance and safety while minimizing operational cost
Project supported by a 10.5-year tolling
agreement; Construction anticipated to begin in Q4 2023 with
commercial operation expected by the end of Q2 2024
Energy Vault Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: NRGV) (“Energy Vault” or the
“Company”), a leader in sustainable grid-scale energy storage
solutions, and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), a
subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE: PCG), today announced the
companies are partnering to deploy and operate a utility-scale
battery plus green hydrogen long-duration energy storage system
(BH-ESS) with a minimum of 293 megawatt-hours (MWh) of dispatchable
carbon-free energy.
This press release features multimedia. View
the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230105005452/en/
The BH-ESS is designed to power downtown and the surrounding
area of the Northern California City of Calistoga for a minimum of
48 hours during planned outages and potential Public Safety Power
Shutoffs (PSPS), which is when the powerlines serving the
surrounding area must be turned off for safety due to high wildfire
risk.
PG&E submitted the project contract for review and approval
to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on December
30, 2022, with a request for the issuance of a final resolution
approving the project by May 15, 2023. The energy storage system
will be owned, operated and maintained by Energy Vault while
providing dispatchable power under a long-term tolling agreement
with PG&E. The system’s capacity may be expanded to 700MWh,
which would allow it to operate for longer without refueling,
enabling further flexibility for PG&E and the City of
Calistoga.
Energy Vault’s BH-ESS will replace the typical, mobile diesel
generators used to energize PG&E’s Calistoga microgrid during
broader grid outages. The project represents a major advance in
community-scale microgrid development and a significant step toward
realizing the CPUC’s vision of cleaner forms of microgrid
generation.
“PG&E selected Energy Vault’s innovative hybrid architecture
and design to create a cost-effective, community-scale, fully
carbon-free microgrid that can store and dispatch on-demand
renewable energy,” said Ron Richardson, Regional Vice President,
North Bay and North Coast, PG&E. “This breakthrough
collaboration between PG&E and Energy Vault provides a template
for future, renewable community-scale microgrids that successfully
integrate third-party distributed energy resources, which is
expected to cost customers less than the benchmark set by state
regulators based on the alternative use of mobile diesel
generators.”
The system is anticipated to provide carbon-free energy for the
Calistoga community of more than 2,000 electric customers for a
period of 48 hours with a hybrid architecture that will allow for
grid forming and black start capabilities, with the potential to
further expand the project’s capacity in the future up to
700MWh.
Construction is anticipated to begin in the fourth quarter of
2023 with commercial operation expected by the end of second
quarter of 2024. Upon completion, this project is expected to be
the first-of-its-kind and the largest utility-scale green hydrogen
project in the United States.
“We’re excited to partner with PG&E on this groundbreaking
project that reflects Energy Vault’s differentiated ability to
design, build and operate innovative and utility-scale energy
storage solutions that meet our customers’ specific needs in
achieving their grid reliability and decarbonization goals,” said
Robert Piconi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Energy Vault.
“We are setting a new benchmark for what can be achieved with an
innovative design that integrates the most advanced energy storage
mediums in order to deliver a fully renewable green hydrogen
battery energy storage system. We look forward to delivering this
world-class resiliency system for the City of Calistoga, which has
been an excellent partner throughout the evaluation and operational
review process. Our engineers designed this innovative hybrid
energy storage system leveraging Energy Vault’s technology-neutral
integration platform and energy management software. This project
represents another key customer validation of our strategy and our
unmatched, industry-leading ability to bring the most innovative
short, long and ultra-long duration energy storage technologies to
our customers with proprietary gravity, green hydrogen and hybrid
battery solutions as we deliver on our mission of enabling a
renewable world.”
About the Technology, How it Works, and Next steps
Under the 10.5-year agreement, Energy Vault will provide
“Distributed Generation-Enabled Microgrid Services” – a type of
energy service that involves using grid-forming generation and
storage resources, potentially in combination with demand-side
resources, to provide energy, fault current contribution and to
regulate voltage and frequency within the utility’s established
parameters to enable the islanding of the Calistoga microgrid
during planned outages.
A hydrogen fuel cell will be powered by electrolytic hydrogen
derived from renewable energy sources. The hybrid
generation/storage facility will not emit localized pollutants such
as oxides of nitrogen and particulate matter when generating
electricity to power the microgrid. Green hydrogen, also called
renewable hydrogen, is produced through the electrolysis of water.
This process is powered entirely by renewable energy, so it
generates no polluting emissions into the atmosphere and is the
cleanest and most sustainable hydrogen. The community-scale
microgrid will be 100% renewable.
The solution is designed to operate during planned outages and
PSPS events, serving all the load within a safe-to-energize area in
the City of Calistoga, including critical facilities such as fire
and police stations, and shared services in the downtown and
surrounding area.
Energy Vault’s proprietary Energy Management System will provide
full system control and optimal dispatching across the multi-medium
aspect of the project, including batteries, hydrogen tanks and
fuel-cells.
PG&E will use and upgrade its existing distribution
infrastructure to establish the microgrid.
The entire system will be developed on less than one acre of
land and is expected to serve as a model for Energy Vault’s future
utility-scale hybrid storage system deployments.
Given the groundbreaking nature of the technology, PG&E and
Energy Vault undertook extensive safety and operational studies and
also consulted with local stakeholders in advance of finalizing the
agreement, including the City of Calistoga and Marin Clean Energy,
a Community Choice Aggregator that is the default retail seller of
electricity in the area.
The City of Calistoga supported the project through the issuance
of a letter of intent to allow City property to be leased to Energy
Vault in order to site the storage and dispatching resources.
For more information, read PG&E’s advice letter requesting
approval of the project.
About PG&E
PG&E, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is a
combined natural gas and electric utility serving more than 16
million people across 70,000 square miles in Northern and Central
California. For more information, visit pge.com and
pge.com/news.
About Energy Vault
Energy Vault® develops and deploys utility-scale energy storage
solutions designed to transform the world's approach to sustainable
energy storage. The company's comprehensive offerings include
proprietary gravity-based storage, battery storage, and green
hydrogen energy storage technologies. Each storage solution is
supported by the Company’s hardware technology-agnostic energy
management system software and integration platform. Unique to the
industry, Energy Vault’s innovative technology portfolio delivers
customized short-and-long-duration energy storage solutions to help
utilities, independent power producers, and large industrial energy
users significantly reduce levelized energy costs while maintaining
power reliability. Utilizing eco-friendly materials with the
ability to integrate waste materials for beneficial reuse, Energy
Vault’s EVx™ gravity-based energy storage technology is
facilitating the shift to a circular economy while accelerating the
global clean energy transition for its customers. Please visit
www.energyvault.com for more information.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes forward-looking statements that
reflect Energy Vault’s current views with respect to, among other
things, the Company’s operations and financial performance.
Forward-looking statements include information concerning possible
or assumed future results of operations, including descriptions of
the Company’s business plan and strategies. These statements often
include words such as “ anticipate,” “expect,” “suggest,” “plan,”
“believe,” “intend,” “project,” “forecast,” “estimates,” “targets,”
“projections,” “should,” “could,” “would,” “may,” “might,” “will”
and other similar expressions. The Company bases these
forward-looking statements or projections on its current
expectations, plans and assumptions, which it has made in light of
its experience in our industry, as well as its perceptions of
historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments
and other factors it believes are appropriate under the
circumstances at the time. These forward-looking statements are
based on the Company’s beliefs, assumptions and expectations of
future performance, taking into account the information currently
available to the Company. These forward-looking statements are only
predictions based upon the Company’s current expectations and
projections about future events. These forward-looking statements
involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause the
Company’s actual results, level of activity, performance or
achievements to differ materially from the results, level of
activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the
forward-looking statements, including changes in the Company's
strategy, expansion plans, customer opportunities, future
operations, future financial position, estimated revenues and
losses, projected costs, prospects and plans; the implementation,
market acceptance and success of its business model and growth
strategy; its ability to develop and maintain our brand and
reputation; developments and projections relating to its business,
its competitors, and industry; the impact of health epidemics,
including the COVID-19 pandemic, on its business and the actions it
may take in response thereto; its expectations regarding its
ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection and
not infringe on the rights of others; expectations regarding the
time during which it will be an emerging growth company under the
JOBS Act; its future capital requirements and sources and uses of
cash; its ability to obtain funding for its operations and future
growth; its business, expansion plans and opportunities and other
important factors discussed under the caption “Risk Factors” in its
Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30,
2022, as such factors may be updated from time to time in its other
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),
accessible on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. New risks emerge
from time to time and it is not possible for the Company’s
management to predict all risks, nor can it assess the impact of
all factors on its business or the extent to which any factor, or
combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ
materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements
it may make. Any forward-looking statement made by the Company in
this press release speaks only as of the date of this press release
and is expressly qualified in its entirety by the cautionary
statements included in this press release. The Company undertakes
no obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking
statement, whether as a result of new information, future
developments or otherwise, except as may be required by any
applicable laws. You should not place undue reliance on the
Company’s forward-looking statements.
This news release contains forward-looking statements that are
not historical facts, including statements about the beliefs,
expectations, estimates, future plans and strategies of PG&E
Corporation and PG&E, including but not limited to the BH ESS
and Distributed Generation-Enabled Microgrid Services. These
statements are based on current expectations and assumptions, which
management believes are reasonable, and on information currently
available to management, but are necessarily subject to various
risks and uncertainties. In addition to the risk that these
assumptions prove to be inaccurate, factors that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those contemplated by the
forward-looking statements include factors disclosed in PG&E
Corporation and PG&E’s joint annual report on Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2021, their most recent quarterly report on
Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2022, and other
reports filed with the SEC, which are available on PG&E
Corporation's website at www.pgecorp.com and on the SEC website at
www.sec.gov. PG&E Corporation and the Utility undertake no
obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking
statements, whether due to new information, future events or
otherwise, except to the extent required by law.
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Investors: energyvaultIR@icrinc.com
Media: media@energyvault.com
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