The capacity can reach 6000MWh! A glimpse of the world's largest battery energy storage power station

Some of the 4,500 battery racks at the Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility. Image: LG Energy Solution

LG Energy Solution said it was the equipment supplier for the world’s largest battery energy storage system recently commissioned by Vistra Energy to be built in Monterey County, California, USA.

The Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility has the world's largest battery energy storage system (BESS), including 300MW/1200MWh of lithium-ion batteries. It began operations in December last year and is located in the service area of ​​Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), an investor-owned utility company in California. It was originally a natural gas power plant owned by Vistra Energy. The main purpose of the facility is to help California reduce power shortages during peak hours at night, supplement power from the state's cheap and abundant solar photovoltaic power generation during the day, and release it when the grid needs it most.

The second phase of the project will add a further 100MW/400MWh of generation in the coming months, while Vistra says the plant’s size and capacity could subsequently be expanded to accommodate up to 1,500MW/6,000MWh of storage if market and economic conditions allow.

South Korean battery and energy storage system manufacturer LG Energy Solution revealed that the factory installed more than 4,500 battery racks based on its latest model TR1300. LG said that the TR1300 battery racks were pre-assembled at the factory before shipping, which reduced construction time and installation costs. Tests were also carried out before shipment to minimize the time required for on-site testing and commissioning work.

Equipped with LG Energy Solution’s JH4 high-energy batteries, the TR1300 racks can be installed into the existing turbine hall at the Moss Landing Power Plant due to their ability to be double-stacked, minimizing construction work, the company said.

LG Energy Solution said the TR1300 has been tested according to the UL 9540A thermal runaway fire propagation standard, and the rack design meets California building code requirements, which consider it safe to operate when the surrounding area is threatened by seismic activity.

Aerial view of the site where a natural gas power plant has been replaced with emission-free lithium battery technology. Image: LG Energy Solution

Moss Landing also has another battery storage system, one of the largest in the world, which has caused some confusion in the media and industry, called the Moss Landing BESS. The project has a storage capacity of 182.5MW/730MWh, and the equipment is provided by Tesla.

Meanwhile, other current activities at Vistra Energy in energy storage include plans for a 600MW project in Morrow Bay, California, which will have a rated generating capacity twice that of the Moss Landing project. Vistra plans to achieve completely zero carbon emissions by 2050, in the process retiring 7,500MW of coal generation by 2030 and deploying about 9GW of renewable energy.

In April, Vistra Energy again called for the introduction of legislation to help Illinois, USA, accelerate the phase-out of coal and replace it primarily with solar-plus-storage facilities. Vistra said that the growing financial and legal pressures associated with operating coal-fired power plants led the company to bring forward the retirement plan of one of its coal-fired power plants by three years, from 2025 to 2022.

(Source: Vistra Energy/LG Energy Solution Global Energy Storage Network, New Energy Network Comprehensive)