Hecate Grid, an energy storage company formed by Hecate Energy and InfraRed Capital Partners Limited (acting in its capacity as manager of InfraRed Infrastructure Fund V), has awarded Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas, Inc. (MHPS) the Johanna Energy Storage System (ESS) project. Hecate Grid will own and operate this grid-connected energy storage system, which will be supported by long-term contracts with an electric utility and a community choice aggregator. MHPS will supply full design and turnkey Engineering, Procurement, and Construction of battery energy storage systems (BESS) totaling 20 megawatts (MW) / 80 megawatt hours (MWh) at Johanna 1 and Johanna 2 in Santa Ana, and will service the project under a 10-year long-term service agreement. The project will be online by the end of 2020.
The Johanna ESS is a part of a critical project integrating renewable energy into the California Independent System Operator (ISO) grid to validate distributed energy resource (DER) capacity assumptions, study grid requirements, and develop technology expertise for broad-scale DER implementation. The multiyear study will determine whether clean distributed energy can offset the increasing demand for electricity in central Orange County California.
As more and more intermittent renewable power is added to the California grid, energy storage becomes increasingly important. The Johanna ESS project will be a stand-alone source of short-term energy storage that can relieve grid congestion and store power for up to four hours during periods of oversupply from renewables.
MHPS will provide Hecate Grid with a complete turnkey BESS solution, including a battery management system and an energy dispatch management system for a fully functional project up to the utility point of connection. To design its custom BESS solution and select the best equipment from key suppliers, MHPS draws upon its OEM experience designing lithium-ion batteries and its decades of experience designing complete energy storage solutions.
MHPS and Hecate Grid selected lithium iron phosphate battery chemistry (LiFePO4, commonly referred to as LFP) for this project. LFP provides superior thermal stability and chemical stability, which significantly lower the risk of overheating and fire relative to other chemistries. LFP also provides a longer life than other chemistries.
Fazli Qadir, Hecate Grid’s Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Engineering, Procurement and Construction, said, “With MHPS as our partner for the Johanna ESS project, we have the whole package. MHPS provides energy storage experience, as well as a global supply chain and scale to build a cost-effective ESS solution. Add that to MHPS’ proven EPC capability, financial stability, and long-term service experience, and we are confident that we have chosen the right partner to ensure a successful long-term project. We look forward to advancing clean distributed energy resource implementation in Southern California with MHPS.”
Tom Cornell, MHPS’s Vice President of NEXT, said, “At MHPS we take pride in understanding our customers’ needs and providing customized short- and long-duration energy storage solutions. We anticipate a beneficial partnership with Hecate Grid, which has deep experience in utility-scale energy storage projects, to support California’s efforts to evaluate, optimize, and move forward with viable clean energy technologies. We are supporting a Change in Power.”
About Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas, Inc.
Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas, Inc. (MHPS Americas), headquartered in Lake Mary, Florida, employs more than 2,000 power generation and energy storage experts and professionals. Our employees are focused on empowering customers to affordably and reliably combat climate change while also advancing human prosperity. MHPS Americas’ expertise includes natural gas, steam, aero-derivative, geothermal, and distributed renewable power generation technologies and services, along with renewable hydrogen and battery energy storage systems, environmental control systems solutions, and digital solutions enabling autonomous operations and maintenance of power assets throughout North and South America. MHPS Americas is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS), a joint venture between Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and Hitachi, Ltd. integrating their operations in power generation systems. MHPS recently announced that its name will soon change to Mitsubishi Power.
About Hecate Grid
Formed in 2018 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Hecate Grid is a joint venture between Hecate Energy (“Hecate”) and InfraRed Capital Partners Limited (“InfraRed”), acting in its capacity as manager of InfraRed Infrastructure Fund V. Hecate Grid develops, owns and operates utility-scale battery storage projects in the United States and Canada, with an active development pipeline in excess of 1 GW.
Hecate Grid leverages the extensive energy development and operations experience of Hecate Energy. Founded in 2012 Hecate Energy has developed and built hundreds of megawatts of operating solar projects totaling over $600 million in asset value and has entered over 1 GW of renewable energy PPAs. The company is in offtake negotiations for over an additional 1GW of new solar projects, with a pipeline of about 11 GW of projects under development.
InfraRed is a global investment manager focused on infrastructure and real estate with an established track record extending over 25 years. From offices in London, Hong Kong, New York, Sydney, Seoul and Mexico City, InfraRed actively manages over 200 infrastructure and real estate projects in 30 countries, with over $12 billion of equity capital under management. Hecate Grid is an investment of InfraRed Infrastructure Fund V, the fifth in the series of InfraRed infrastructure development funds, which was raised in 2018.
