Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Avista battery project
A crane lifts an Avista electrical storage unit off a truck earlier this year.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee, Senator Maria Cantwell and Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rogers will be in Pullman today, Thursday, to flip the switch on an Avista Energy Storage Project.
The event will mark the beginning of testing for a new battery storage system at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL).
Representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy, Avista, UniEnergy Technologies of Mulkiteo, Wash., and Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, along with WSU President Elson Floyd, will also join the event from 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The $7 million wind energy storage project is a joint effort by Avista Utilities and the State of Washington Department of Commerce in cooperation with SEL.
On Dec. 30 five large battery storage units were lifted into place in a parking lot of SEL Laboratories in Pullman.
The batteries, which are housed in half-size ocean cargo containers, will store power during abundant times – high wind – and then distribute it when it’s needed.
Ultimately, the large-scale energy storage system will aim to improve distribution of energy from wind farms.
Because wind power is generated in inconsistent spurts, it requires another source of generation paired with it– such as the hydroelectic power of Lower Granite Dam. However, if there were a way to store energy generated by wind, then the source would not be as dependent on other generation methods.
Power from the battery storage will be available within 50 milliseconds of its generation, as opposed to the 10 to 15 minutes required to engage a natural gas combustion turbine.
For manufacturing customers like SEL, use of the new battery storage during a power outage can provide continuous power.
According to Dave Whitehead, SEL Vice President of Research and Development, the battery will be able to power two-thirds of SEL’s manufacturing building for three hours. The project will also use SEL equipment (SEL-451) to detect when to use power from the grid or to use power from the battery.
The Energy Storage Project is funded by a $3.8 million investment from Avista as well as a $3.2 million grant from the Washington State Department of Commerce’s Clean Energy Fund.
Made by UniEnergy Technologies, the batteries being used were developed from Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL) technology which uses chemical charging, rather than chemical reaction.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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