Posted on 06/02/2015 5:25:26 AM PDT by thackney
Indianapolis Power & Light Co. (IPL) plans to construct a $25 million energy-storage facility in central Indiana. Department of Metropolitan Development officials said IPL is looking at two spots for the battery energy storage system (BESS): one at the Harding Street Station in Marion County, Indiana; and the other is at a new $600 million Eagle Valley plant under construction in Morgan County.
Officials estimate the project at the Harding Street plant to cost $24.5 million for new equipment and $500,000 for real estate. However, the project would not be eligible for a real estate tax abatement. IPL is seeking a 10-year abatement of personal property tax that would save nearly $3.1 million during the abatement period. The Indianapolis Business Journal reported the utility would pay an estimated $1.9 million in personal property taxes over that time period and about $291,000 annually after the abatement expires.
IPL spokeswoman Brandi Davis-Handy said the utility would move forward on the facility at Harding Street if the project receives the local tax incentives.
Construction on the energy storage facility could begin this summer and be completed by fall 2016.
The Harding Street plant is scheduled to be converted from a coal-fired power plant to a natural gas-fired plant by next year.
ping since we spoke of this plant yesterday
http://www.utilitydive.com/news/indianapolis-power-light-to-invest-25m-in-storage-facility/399502/
The utility filed its integrated resource plan in October of last year, pointing out that “ongoing cost reductions and technology improvements ... continue to improve opportunities for battery based
energy storage systems.”
In its plan, IPL described a battery storage project and said it is in the late stages of considering options, including “up to a 20 MW BESS within Indianapolis and MISO regional transmission area which would likely be located within the IPL 138 kV grid. The immediate benefit that the BESS would provide to
customers is fast-response frequency regulation for the grid.”
IPL told the Business Journal that the grid currently sends automatic generation control signals to traditional power plants to either increase or decrease their output to keep the system in balance.
“Although this is an adequate way to provide frequency regulation, it is inferior to fast-response batteries which can instantaneously add or remove power to the grid,” the utility explained. “Although frequency regulation of a BESS project is the immediate commercial benefit to IPL customers, IPL will also explore and pilot studies on other applications.” Those could include ramping, peak shaving, and renewables integration focused on solar.
“The Harding Street plant is scheduled to be converted from a coal-fired power plant to a natural gas-fired plant by next year.
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some guy on one of your threads said this cannot happen.
It isn’t efficient. The conversion of this plant moves it from base load to “peaking” type usage since it will cost more to run.
In my mind, it is a dumb conversion. Cheaper in the long run to build a combined cycle gas turbine and only reuse the substation equipment. But with many coal being shut down in a hurry, capital investment cost may currently outweigh long term economics.
It does seem pretty stupid. You normally use energy storage when you have a huge base load of coal fired plants and insufficient intermediate generation and peakers. They are replacing coal (baseload) with combustion turbines (typically peakers, unless they are combined cycle) which by itself will greatly reduce the imbalance of the mix. I’m missing something here. It would make more sense if they were taking a huge DOE subsidy, but the excerpt suggests this is a purely commercial investment not skewed by “free” money.
“Convert” most likely means means leveling the site and starting over. There isn’t much of an old coal plant you could use in a modern CTCC plant. I doubt you could reuse the turbine and condenser due to different steam temp, pressure, and volume.
What do you know? You’re not a politician.
They must have the mother of all power transistors!
But then, the line in is high voltage AC, the storage batteries low voltage DC, the output back to high voltage AC.
After all the conversion/heat loss, just gang a few of the power transistors used by the guys with the giant speakers in the back of the car.
They are going to use the old coal steam turbines as a peak type operation. They probably need the batteries to give them time to get out to full heat from “ready” heat.
It is done in other locations, just not very commonly. The batteries are probably stacked enough in series to give a comparable high voltage. Same done with the power transistors.
The US uses 500kV DC transmission lines with power conversions to AC at the ends.
Convert” most likely means means leveling the site and starting over. ‘
With that definition, it could be converted to a shopping mall or Gracey store
The cost quoted in the local paper is $70 Million, most of which was attributed to removing the coal handling apparatus.
The conversion, which is subject to Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission approval, will incorporate a burner management system controls upgrade for all three units and installation of new burners within the three existing boilers, as well as igniters.
The controls upgrade, a critical phase of the project, will include modification of the system to meet new operating performance requirements for gas-fired generation.
The project will also entail installation of flue gas recirculating fans, flue gas draft modifications, a control system evergreen update and installation of an auxiliary boiler.
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At the same time, IPL discusses at another location, why the Combined Cycle Gas Turbine new build is the most cost effective option.
https://www.iplpower.com/Our_Company/Newsroom/Fact_Sheets/Combined-Cycle_Gas_Turbine_Fact_Sheet/
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My guess, and only a guess, they are in a hurry to get rid of the coal and cannot justify the capital outlay for two large CCGT plants, even though in the long run it would be cheaper. If they have to get rid of these old coal plants now, this is probably what could be sold to the public utility commission.
https://www.iplpower.com/Our_Company/Newsroom/Fact_Sheets/Generation_Portfolio_Fact_Sheet/
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