ACEP Researchers Attend Battery Energy Storage Review and RADIANCE Project Technical Interchange Meeting

ACEP researchers Daisy Huang, Richard Wies and Jeremy Vandermeer were in Cordova last week and met with representatives from three national labs, industry, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and an Alaska-based contractor. They reviewed battery energy storage integration plans and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium RADIANCE project for the Cordova Electric Cooperative's hydro-diesel electric grid.

RADIANCE — the Resilient Alaskan Distribution System Improvements Using Automation, Network Analysis, Control and Energy Storage — is a collaborative effort to develop a battery energy storage system and control strategy to reduce the amount of spilled hydroelectric and expensive diesel electric generation required to meet daily and seasonal variations in demand in CEC’s isolated electrical grid.

Current plans are to install an energy storage system, including a lithium-ion battery bank, associated power electronic converter and controls, to achieve these improvements to CEC’s grid operation. Outcomes from discussions at this meeting will be used to complete the design and specifications of the battery and converter, and to develop control techniques so that CEC receives the optimal economic, life-cycle and operational benefits from the battery energy storage project.

Members of the RADIANCE team met in Cordova last week. Photo courtesy of Daisy Huang/UAF.