Energy Vault Holdings and Pacific Gas and Electric Company are partnering to deploy and operate a 293 MWh battery-plus-green hydrogen storage system, according to a press release.
The BH-ESS is designed to power the downtown and surrounding area of Calistoga in Northern California for a minimum of 48 hours during planned outages and potential public safety power shutoffs, which is when the powerlines serving the surrounding area must be turned off for safety due to high wildfire risk.
The energy storage system will be owned, operated and maintained by Energy Vault while operating under a long-term tolling agreement with PG&E.
The system’s capacity may be expanded to 700MWh, the release states. It will replace mobile diesel generators used to energize PG&E’s Calistoga microgrid during broader grid outages.
Construction is anticipated to begin in 4Q23 with commercial operation expected by the end of 2Q24.
“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,” the release states.
