Across October and November, fourteen new battery energy storage systems received full approval from ERCOT to begin commercial operations.
In all four load zones in ERCOT, at least two batteries were able to begin commercial operations.
However, installed capacity increased the most in the West and North Load Zones, shown on the map below in red and yellow, respectively. Between October and November, more than 450 MW of new battery energy storage capacity was completed in both the West and the North.
In total, capacity grew by just over 1 GW of rated power, or 1.3 GWh of energy capacity, in the past two months.
This brings the total installed capacity to nearly 7.5 GW, or 11 GWh, through the end of November.
How fast is the battery energy storage buildout happening, and why?
Installed battery energy storage capacity has increased by over 3.4 GW, or around 85%, so far in 2024. This is up from around 4 GW at the beginning of the year.
Total installed capacity has continued to grow at an increasing rate. In fact, it’s on track to double for the third consecutive year.
This is mostly due to an increased emphasis on larger projects. Since June, six sites larger than 200 MW have become commercially operational.
Prior to June, only two commercial operational sites had a nameplate capacity of more than 200 MW.
As a result, the average battery energy storage system in ERCOT has grown to nearly 50 MW, a 29% increase from the beginning of the year, when the average size was 37 MW.
How is the makeup of battery owners changing?
Independent Power Producers (IPPs) continue to lead the way in battery energy storage project development and ownership.
In particular, ENGIE now has nearly two GW of capacity under ownership after completing two new 200+ MW systems in October - Paleo BESS and Hydra BESS. Its 1.9 GW under ownership accounts for 24% of total operational capacity by rated power. It also has more than double the total operational capacity - by rated power - of any other battery owner in ERCOT.
Since ENGIE has exclusively focused on one-hour systems to this point, its lead in energy capacity is narrower. However, it still has around 400 MWh more than the owner with the second-most installed energy capacity - Plus Power, with nearly 1.6 GWh.
2024’s rapid growth of battery energy storage capacity has not been propelled solely by existing participants.
In 2024, four new owners have had projects reach commercial operations.
These new owners are:
- UBS Asset Management,
- Cypress Creek Renewables,
- Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ingka Group, which is IKEA’s largest retailer,
- and REX - a partnership between Excelsior Energy Capital and Regis Energy Partners.
The newest amongst those was the Swiss bank UBS Asset Management, which brought the 103 MW Al Pastor BESS online in West Texas in November.
Cypress Creek is a traditional IPP, that - in this case - acquired its sites from Black Mountain Energy Storage, a fellow BESS developer. Cypress Creek then brought those sites to commercial operations - progressing through the engineering, procurement and construction phases, along with securing financing.
In March, Ingka completed the development of its first battery, Cameron Storage, in partnership with Apex Clean Energy.
In 2024, REX has completed four battery energy storage systems. All four are distributed generation resources (DGRs). The other three new owners have focused solely on projects larger than 9.9 MW thus far.
What about battery energy storage operators?
Habitat Energy is the registered qualified scheduling entity (QSE) and decision-making entity (DME) for UBS Asset Management’s new Al Pastor BESS. This effectively means that Habitat is both the battery operator and optimizer. Al Pastor is a 103 MW and 145 MWh standalone battery energy storage system in West Texas.
With Al Pastor, Habitat now operates the fifth-most battery energy storage capacity of any operator in ERCOT.
This is despite Habitat only beginning to operate batteries in ERCOT earlier this year.
The further concentration of capacity among the top operators of BESS explains this in part.
For instance, ENGIE is operating the two new assets it owns that were commissioned between October and November, as well as Tesla’s new resource, Connolly Storage, a 125 MW battery located in North Texas. Additionally, each of the other top four operators added new capacity in the last two months.
Shell is operating Key Capture Energy’s new battery, the two-hour, 104 MW Hummingbird Storage located next to Connolly Storage. Meanwhile, Tenaska continues to be Cypress Creek Renewables’ choice of operator, acting as the QSE for the 101 MW, 1.5-hour River Bend battery, near Houston. Lastly, Enel Green Power also had a battery reach commercial operations in November, the 72 MW Fence Post BESS, located near Houston. Enel continues to act as the operator for the batteries it owns.
Some other new operators in 2024 are:
- Tyr Energy, which is operating and optimizing REX’s four new batteries,
- and Gridmatic, the new operator and optimizer of Key Capture Energy’s Endurance Park ESS as of October 10th.
What to look forward to as the page turns to 2025?
Thirty-one batteries have received their approval to synchronize to the ERCOT grid but not to begin commercial operations. In total, these batteries represent 2.2 GW of new capacity that will likely reach commercial operations in the next three to six months.
If even 600 MW of this capacity reaches commercial operations in December, the total installed capacity will have doubled in ERCOT in 2024.
Regardless, battery energy storage capacity continues to be developed at a staggering rate in ERCOT. In 2025, as much as 10 GW of capacity could become commercially operational.
Subscribers can download the current version of Modo Energy’s battery database in the file below.