Axium Infrastructure and Canadian Solar Inc.it is Recurring Energy and CSI Energy Storage subsidiaries began operations at Crimson Storage, a 350 MW / 1,400 MWh stand-alone energy storage project in California.
Located on public land in Riverside County, California, the project holds two long-term energy storage contracts with California’s largest utilities, Southern California Edison (SCE) and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E ). Both contracts are part of reliability purchases led by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).
SCE has a PPA for 200 MW / 800 MWh with a 14 year and 10 month contract under a full toll agreement. PG&E has a 15-year 150 MW / 600 MWh contract for resource adequacy only.
Recurrent Energy and Axium will operate the battery system in the California wholesale electricity market.
“Crimson Storage is now the largest single-phase energy storage project to reach commercial operation in the world and the second-largest operating stand-alone energy storage project in the world,” said Dr. Shawn Qu, President and CEO. of the management of Canadian Solar. “Recurrent Energy began developing Crimson Storage and our largest energy storage pipeline in 2015 when no large-scale storage projects existed.”
“Last year, we started to bring these projects to fruition, also thanks to our CSI Energy Storage team,” continues Qu. “We celebrate how far we have come in delivering the much-needed flexible generation that will support the transformative climate goals of the United States and California. We thank the California Public Utilities Commission, the US Department of the Interior, and our partners at Axium Infrastructure for their critical contributions to this project.
A fund managed by Axium Infrastructure US Inc. owns 80% of the project and Recurrent Energy, the project developer, retains 20%.
CSI Energy Storage was the turnkey system integrator for the project, providing engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services and will provide long-term operational services for the project.