The City Council for Danville, Va., a public power community, on Nov. 7 approved plans for the construction of an energy storage facility in the city.
Lightshift Energy previously sought a Special Use Permit to operate a public utility in Danville at a 2.6-acre parcel owned by the City of Danville that contains a vacant block structure.
Lightshift Energy, with a land use lease agreement with the City of Danville, proposed to install a battery storage facility with a capacity of up to 12 megawatts of energy storage.
Jason Grey, Director of Utilities for Danville, told a local ABC news affiliate that the project will continue to control costs as the city can "use these batteries for peak shaving events helps lower our costs so we don’t have to pass along rate increases as high or at all if these batteries can help mitigate that."
Along with the special use permit, the city council also approved a resolution authorizing and approving Danville to enter into an agreement for 12 MW of battery energy storage capacity.
At the Nov. 7 City Council Meeting, Grey and Ricky Elder IIII, Director of Development for Lightshift Energy, took questions from city council members about the project.
The facility will provide local energy storage in an effort to lower rising transmission, capacity and congestion charges; this will provide benefits to ratepayers of Danville Utilities. The energy storage will interconnect with the city's electric system.
The project will be the second battery storage facility for energy operated by Lightshift Energy for the City of Danville.
The company’s 10.5 MW battery facility in Danville, which has been operating since 2022, is expected to save the city of Danville more than $40 million, Lightshift Energy noted earlier this year.
