Energy Solutions - Research, Trading and Management Contact Us Client Login
Battery Report | Battery Wake-Up Call
Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Back in December 2021, we first tackled the question of how much natural gas the CAISO battery fleet was displacing. We wrote a special report titled ‘Batteries Just a Drop in Gas Burn Bucket’ and declared it was safe to hit the snooze button on the issue for a few more years. The capacity of the CAISO fleet was only 2.6 GW and peak discharge from the fleet was less than a gigawatt on the average evening. Our best estimate for gas displaced by batteries then was around 0.01 BCF a day. Flash forward to July 2023, we checked in again in a special report titled ‘CAISO Batteries’ Impact on Power Burns’. By this point, the fleet’s capacity had almost doubled and the peak evening discharge for an average evening had more than tripled. Still, the impact on gas wasn’t large, averaging less than 0.08 BCF a day displaced. Ultimately, we credited batteries with around a third of the year-on-year drop in power burns with other factors playing a larger role. Now, a year later, we’ll take another look at the growth in the fleet and our current best estimate of the amount of gas displaced as of July 2024.

First, let’s check in on power burns and review some important context for CAISO this spring. The figure below displays year-on-year power burns for both PG&E and SoCal with the 2024 gas year in blue and 2023 in yellow. SoCal saw a large year-on-year drop in power burns between March and mid-June this year. Congestion between NP15 and SP15 meant an abundance of solar and extremely low midday prices for SP15 for much of this spring. PG&E power burns varied, coming in below last year’s levels in March and April, but mostly above 2023 in May and June. A variety of factors including transmission outages, a good hydro year, solar growth, and more impacted both PG&E and SoCal burns this year. However, we will attempt to tease out how much of the loss can be attributed to batteries.

Figure 1 | PGAE and SoCal Power Burns Year-on-Year

inline image 1


Subscription Required to Continue Reading

Subscribe to the Platinum Plus package below and access all historical articles and continue reading Battery Report | Battery Wake-Up Call.

Not interested in our subscription products? Purchase the article by adding to your cart. Add to cart

Do you have questions about our product offerings? Compare our packages or contact us for help.

Find a package that matches your needs

Save up to 31% by selecting an annual plan
Save up to 31% by selecting an annual plan
Package Level Product
Gratis Silver Gold Platinum Platinum Plus Enterprise
$ Free $75 per month / user $150 per month / user $250 per month / user $600 per month / user Starts at $2000 per month
Daily newsletter delivered to your email box Access to historical newsletter blogs Access to historical newsletter blogs and at least 30 power and gas related articles per year Access to historical newsletter blogs, at least 30 power and gas related articles, 18 special reports, and 12 monthly recaps per year Access to Platinum Level Subscription plus Daily/Monthly Battery and CAISO Curtailment Dashboards, and 12 monthly Renewable Reports per year Customized access to 100+ natural gas and power research reports, data charting and query tools, and much more!
Subscribe to newsletter Add to cart Add to cart Add to cart Add to cart Learn more
Package Addons Package Addons
Burrito $75 per month Scheduled weekly distribution, no less than 30 burritos throughout the year
View a sample Burrito
Scheduled weekly distribution, no less than 30 burritos throughout the year
View a sample Burrito
Add to cart

Already subscribed? Please login below.

Login

Please enter your username and password.

Account Information
Forgot your username or password? Click here to reset.