World’s Largest Utility-Scale Battery Energy Storage System Now Online

(The Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility. Credit: Vistra)

The Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility, the world’s largest utility-scale battery energy storage system, is now online. The 300 megawatts/1,200 megawatt-hours lithium-ion battery storage system is located on-site at Vistra’s Moss Landing Power Plant in Monterey County, California. Construction is already underway on Phase II, which will add an additional 100 MW/400 MWh to the facility by August 2021, bringing its total capacity to 400 MW/1,600 MWh.

Vistra, a power generation company that handled the project, says that, as the country transitions to a clean energy future, batteries will play a pivotal role and this project will serve as the model for utility-scale battery storage for years to come.

Phase 1 is housed inside the power plant’s refurbished former turbine building and spans the length of nearly three football fields. The system is made up of more than 4,500 stacked battery racks or cabinets, each containing 22 individual battery modules, which capture excess electricity from the grid, largely during high solar-output hours, and can release the power when energy demand is at its highest and solar electricity is declining, usually early morning and late afternoon.

Phases I and II of the Vistra Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility are backed up by long-term resource adequacy contracts with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E).