AIP Management to co-develop 160 MV battery energy in California
AIP Management (“AIP”) has agreed with Southern Power to co-develop two 4-hour battery energy storage systems (“BESS”) in California, with a total combined capacity of 160 MW / 640 MWh.
Southern Power, a leading U.S. wholesale energy provider and subsidiary of Southern Company, has been awarded two 20-year power purchase agreements by Southern California Edison (SCE) and is adding battery-based energy storage resources at both Tranquillity Solar Facility and Garland Solar Facility in California.
The BESS will be co-located with the operational solar PV facilities Garland and Tranquillity in Kern and Fresno County, respectively. AIP acquired a 49% equity stake in the solar PV facilities in 2018 with Southern Power owning the remaining 51%. AIP’s investment in the battery systems will be completed under the existing partnership on behalf of the Danish pension funds PKA and PenSam.
“The battery energy storage system additions to the Garland and Tranquillity solar PV facilities will contribute to the critical need of balancing peak demand and energy supply from intermittent resources, thereby creating a more stable and efficient transmission grid. These are the first energy storage systems that we invest in, but we see these types of investments as a good fit for our portfolio of renewable generation assets. It will help facilitate California meeting its Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) programme of having 60% of its energy generation coming from renewable sources by 2030, and growing to 100% by 2045,” said Kasper Hansen, Managing Partner of AIP.
The construction mobilization commenced in December 2020, and both systems are expected to be fully operational by August and October 2021.
About Southern Power
Southern Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company, is a leading U.S. wholesale energy provider meeting the electricity needs of municipalities, electric cooperatives, investor-owned utilities and other energy customers. Southern Power and its subsidiaries, some of which are owned in part with various partners, own or operate 52 facilities operating or under development in 13 states with more than 12,080 MW of generating capacity in Alabama, California, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Maine, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, Washington, and West Virginia.
About AIP Management
AIP Management is a Danish investment company dedicated to investing into energy and infrastructure assets in Europe and the US. To date, AIP has invested more than EUR 4 billion, primarily in assets that contribute to the green transition, including in six European offshore wind farms, three onshore wind farms in Sweden and the US, as well as in four large solar power plants in California and Texas. The existing investments deliver sustainable energy to cover the equivalent of 2.2 million households’ consumption and they save more than 3 million tonnes of CO2 on a yearly basis. For more information, please visit www.aipmanagement.dk.
