Blue Ridge Power Agency Partners on Virginia Battery Storage Projects
The Blue Ridge Power Agency (BRPA) is working with Lightshift Energy to set up a number of battery energy storage projects across Virginia. These projects will be done in partnership with the City of Salem Electric Department, Craig-Botetourt Electric Cooperative (CBEC), and Central Virginia Electric Cooperative (CVEC). There may be more BRPA projects in the future. The first five projects are being built right now and should be finished by 2026. The first set of projects will save the BRPA utilities over $100 million throughout the course of their lives.
Alice Wolfe, General Manager of BRPA, stated,
“We are excited to see these facilities come online and save money for CBEC, CVEC, and Salem members and customers. Costs of transmission and capacity have been a worry for a while, and these new battery projects will help keep these costs down.”
Distribution-Connected Storage Portfolio
The five-project portfolio has been carefully placed in rural Virginia at three CVEC sites, one with CBEC, and one with Salem. All of the projects are around 5 MW and are linked to the distribution system. This means that they may help both the distribution and transmission systems, as well as the areas where they are located.
“As Virginia’s need for energy storage grows, electric cooperatives and municipal utilities are in a unique position to lead the way in new uses that directly help their members,”
said Mike Herbert, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Lightshift Energy.
“This coordinated effort with BRPA, CVEC, CBEC, and Salem shows how portfolios of distribution-connected storage can not only save the participating utilities a lot of money, but also provide quick and cheap capacity at a time when the PJM market is trying to bring on new resources and keep electricity prices low.”
