By: Mike Mustiglione
The thumbs up has been given to a plan that will see New York State’s largest battery system built at a power plant located on the East River in Queens.
According to a statement released by the New York Public Service Commission, the 316-megawatt system will be powerful enough to provide electricity to more than 250,000 households for up to eight hours at a time. That should help stabilize Consolidated Edison Inc.’s grid and curtail use of oil and natural gas.
“The lithium-ion system planned at the Ravenswood power plant in Long Island City will be built in three phases, with the first coming online in 2021. It’s the latest in a series of massive energy-storage projects announced nationwide. The push comes as battery prices plummet, and officials harness the technology to smooth power flows on grids, displace gas plants that only run when demand peaks and incorporate more wind and solar energy,” reported Crain’s New York Business.
“Energy storage is vital to building flexibility into the grid,” New York State Public Service Commission Chair John Rhodes said in the statement.
The facility “would be located at 38-54 Vernon Boulevard, Long Island City, in New York City’s Borough of Queens,” according to pv-magazine-usa.com. “If the groups deploy all 2.5 GWh of energy storage, they will need demolish 16 existing gas peaker plants, only two of which – with a total peaking capacity of 316 MW – are currently running. There are other gas burning facilities as well, some of which were originally built in the early 1960s.”
Ravenswood was originally built and owned by Con Edison in 1963. The first two units constructed in 1963 were Ravenswood 10 and 20, each having a generating capacity of approximately 385 megawatts. Then, in 1965, Ravenswood 30 (commonly called “Big Allis”) was commissioned with a generating capacity of nearly 981 megawatts. In the 1970s, multiple combustion turbine units were installed in a simple cycle configuration to meet peak power demands. Two 2030 MWth (500 MWe) nuclear reactors were planned to begin operation on the site in 1970, but they were cancelled due to controversy and safety concerns, according to Wikipedia.
“Due to deregulation of the energy markets in New York State, Con Edison was required to sell all of its “in-city” generating stations in New York City including Ravenswood. In 1999, Con Edison transferred ownership of Ravenswood to KeySpan Energy (KeySpan) for $597 million. In 2004, KeySpan constructed a new unit, Ravenswood 40, using combined cycle technology with generating capacity of 250 megawatts.”
National Grid plc acquired KeySpan in 2007, but due to its involvement in electrical transmission the New York Public Service Commission required National Grid to sell Ravenswood to ensure competition in the market, Wikipedia noted. On August 26, 2008, Ravenswood was sold by National Grid to TransCanada Corporation for $2.9 billion.
