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Title: Lessons Learned from the Puerto Rico Battery Energy Storage System

Conference ·
OSTI ID:9707

The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) installed a battery energy storage system in 1994 at a substation near San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was patterned after two other large energy storage systems operated by electric utilities in California and Germany. The Puerto Rico facility is presently the largest operating battery storage system in the world and has successfully provided frequency control, voltage regulation, and spinning reseme to the Caribbean island. The system further proved its usefulness to the PREPA network in the fall of 1998 in the aftermath of Hurricane Georges. However, the facility has suffered accelerated cell failures in the past year and PREPA is committed to restoring the plant to full capacity. This represents the first repowering of a large utility battery facility. PREPA and its vendors and contractors learned many valuable lessons during all phases of project development and operation, which are summarized in this paper.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
US Department of Energy (US)
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000
OSTI ID:
9707
Report Number(s):
SAND99-2094C; TRN: AH200125%%145
Resource Relation:
Conference: 6th International Conference Batteries for Utility Energy Storage, Gelsenkirchen (DE), 09/21/1999--09/23/1999; Other Information: PBD: 11 Aug 1999
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English