Reflex Flow Battery at Mission Produce
Mission Produce, Inc.
Recipient
Oxnard, CA
Recipient Location
21st
Senate District
38th
Assembly District
Completed
Project Status
Project Result
The recipient is currently working with the contract agreement manager and California Energy Commission's Research and Development group to complete the necessary documentation to be submitted for approval for the June 2020 business meeting.
The Issue
Today California uses “peaker replacement” batteries which are generally 2-4 hour in duration and called upon 20-40 times per year. In the future, as California surpasses 40-60% renewable generation, batteries in the grid will be used differently. California will require “base-loading” Energy Storage systems; Systems that have a very high cycle life and a long duration, to perform daily discharges and balance out the solar generation. The recipient makes just such a battery, but it has yet to have pump operations optimized for longer duration discharges and has yet to be packaged as an outdoor-rated unit.
Project Innovation
The project's primary technology is a flow battery that will fill an important need for California's grid. Most notably, the flow battery has an unlimited cycle life, which will be required when California's solar penetration passes 40-50%. With this project, the recipient will be able to rescale prior products in the lab to address 10-hour duration and outdoor applications, bringing these technologies from TRL 6 to TRL 7. Deploying the 500 kW system at the project site and testing the system for an entire year, enables the technology to reach TRL 8. The project site will deploy the improved flow battery units in a use case that relies on all available energy in the system during day-to-day operations and uses a slower, 10-hour discharge in microgrid operations.
Project Benefits
The recipient will be demonstrating the reliability, performance and ease of installation, commissioning and operations through a previously awarded, on-going Energy Commission grant. In this project, the recipient will advance the product by making it outdoor-rated and will optimize the pumps for performing seamlessly in 10-hour applications. Afterwards, the project site will demonstrate the improved product in an outdoor, 10-hour application. California will be unable to reach the 100% renewable target envisioned by SB 100 without significant investment in high cycle life batteries. This project will enhance an unlimited cycle life technology to make it ready for widespread adoption and enable the 100% renewable target.
Affordability
The system will participate in behind the meter activities including arbitrage and peak shaving to save money on the project site electric bill. The result is annual savings from just behind the meter activities of $89,000 per year. They may also earn another $20,000 for the bulk incentive program. It is estimated that participation in the capacity bidding program (CPP) will result in another $31,000 per year in revenues. Participation in the CPP would require a change to the tariff entirely and needs a full tariff analysis but will be considered in the economic analysis slated for the planning phase of this project. It could result in an additional savings of $10,000.
Environmental Sustainability
On a day-to-day basis, as part of the economic use case, this energy storage system will be time shifting energy produced by solar panels in the morning, mid-peak hours to the late afternoon/early evening, on-peak hours. This will be offsetting generation by the marginal generator, natural gas, and saving 0.42 kg/kWh. The other use cases: microgrid, capacity bidding program, CPP will take place at times when the alternative is very expensive oil-based generation and at those times the battery will be saving 0.96 kg/kWh.
Key Project Members
Charles Nelson
Subrecipients
UniEnergy Technologies, LLC
IEC, Inc
Match Partners
Mission Produce, Inc.
