California Community Choice Aggregators Approve Long-Duration Energy Storage Contract

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
March 18, 2022

At a meeting of the California Community Power board in late February, members of the joint powers agency voted to enter into a contract for the 50-megawatt (MW)/400-megawatt hour (MWh) Goal Line long-duration energy storage project.

The lithium-ion battery storage project, developed by Onward Energy, will have eight hours of discharge duration and will be located in Escondido, California, with an expected online date of 2025.

California Community Power is comprised of 10 California community choice aggregators (CCAs).

In January, members of the joint powers agency voted to enter into an energy storage service agreement with REV Renewables for 69 MW/552 MWh of long-duration energy storage. The REV Renewables Tumbleweed project will be a CAISO grid-connected, lithium-ion battery storage resource located near Rosamond, in Kern County, California, with an expected online date of 2026.

The joint procurement effort for long-duration energy storage is a continuation of an October 2020 request for offers (RFO) seeking to procure cost-effective and viable long-duration storage resources.

A subset of California Community Power member CCAs issued the RFO prior to a California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) procurement order.

The Goal Line and Tumbleweed contracts will allow the participating CCAs to meet their obligation for the long-duration energy storage requirement mandated by the CPUC.

Participation in the RFO and resulting projects is voluntary for each California Community Power member.

The participating agencies for the Goal Line project are CleanPowerSF, Redwood Coast Energy Authority, San Jose Clean Energy, Silicon Valley Clean Energy, Sonoma Clean Power Authority, and Valley Clean Energy.

The governing boards of each participating member will follow their local review and approval processes for the contract and associated agreements for the Goal Line project.

The American Public Power Association has initiated a new category of membership for community choice aggregation programs.