City of Port Angeles (COPA) and
Emerald PUD (EPUD)
Steffes Equipment Pilot - BPA is partnering with each utility to purchase and install Energy Thermal Storage (ETS) units that can store underutilized renewable or off peak electric energy for space and water heating. ETS systems store electric energy as heat in a well insulated brick core. Built-in microprocessor-based control systems regulate the charging level and rate. Storage occurs as utilities signal the unit to charge with available renewable or off-peak energy, or in response to other needs of the grid, or when signaled based on built in time clocks, input from residential thermostats, or consumer control. Steffes equipment has the ability to take on "extra" storage during periods when excess energy is available (e.g., when the wind fleet ramps up rapidly) or to turn off when the power supply is limited (e.g., when the wind fleet connected to the BPA grid is suddenly becalmed).
Goals and objectives:
- Steffes ETS units can provide this "battery-like" storage of electric energy at a small fraction (10% to 50%) of the cost of batteries, compressed air energy storage, flywheels, pumped storage hydro, single cycle peaking combustion turbines, and superconducting magnetic storage. BPA would like to test the possibility of getting value out of ETS technology for wind power reserves, balancing wind power interconnected to the BPA transmission system, and for other Federal power system purposes (e.g., transmission congestion relief).