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World’s largest utility-scale battery storage facility proposed for Morro Bay 

World's largest utility-scale battery storage facility

A slide from Vistra Energy’s proposal to the Morro Bay City Council.

–A Texas energy company is proposing to build the world’s largest utility-scale battery storage facility on the site of the old Morro Bay Power Plant. Vistra Energy presented its new proposal to the Morro Bay City Council on Jan. 26.

Earlier this year the company went online with the world’s largest utility-scale battery energy storage system in Moss Landing, Calif. It’s capable of storing and transferring 300 megawatts of electricity with its lithium-ion battery storage system at the Moss Landing Power Plant.

The proposal for Morro Bay is even larger. The company would like to build a 273,000-square-feet plant with lithium-ion batteries on 22-acres at the old power plant. It would be capable of storing 600 megawatts of electricity, the company says.

Utility-scale battery storage systems can store electricity produced by renewable energy sources like solar and wind farms or pulled directly from the electrical grid and then redistribute the power later as needed. A 1,000-megawatt wind farm with 100 turbines is being planned for the coastal waters 15-20 miles from Morro Bay.

Vistra Energy’s Morro Bay project could power 450,000 homes, more than three times the number of homes in San Luis Obispo County. The company would like to begin construction in 2022 and it would last for 36-48 months.

The company estimates it would pay $4.8 million in total annual property tax payment to San Luis Obispo County and employ up to 300 construction workers. Regular operations, once operating, would employ 15 permanent workers.

“We appreciate the strong working relationship we’ve developed with PG&E on multiple projects and look forward to continuing to help meet its resource adequacy requirements and provide clean, reliable, and affordable power to Californians,” says Curt Morgan, CEO of Vistra Energy.

Vistra Energy projects

Upton, Texas (10 MW/42 MWh) – online December 2018
Moss Landing – Phase I (300 MW/1,200 MWh) – online December 2020
Moss Landing – Phase II (100 MW/400 MWh) – expected online by August 2021
Oakland (36.25 MW/145 MWh) – expected online 2022
DeCordova (260 MW/260 MWh) – expected online 2022

About Vistra Energy

Vistra (NYSE: VST) is a leading, Fortune 275 integrated retail electricity and power generation company based in Irving, Texas, providing essential resources for customers, commerce, and communities. Vistra combines an innovative, customer-centric approach to retail with safe, reliable, diverse, and efficient power generation. The company brings its products and services to market in 20 states and the District of Columbia, including six of the seven competitive wholesale markets in the U.S. and markets in Canada and Japan, as well. It serves nearly 5 million residential, commercial, and industrial retail customers with electricity and natural gas.

Watch the Jan. 26 Morro Bay City Council meeting below. The Vistra Energy presentation starts about 21 minutes into it.

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About the author: Publisher Scott Brennan

Scott Brennan is the publisher of this newspaper and founder of Access Publishing. Follow him on Twitter, LinkedIn, or follow his blog.