Salt River Project and Flatland Storage LLC, a subsidiary of EDP Renewables North America, have entered into an agreement to provide 200 megawatts of new energy storage to Arizona’s grid.
The Flatland Energy Storage Project will be a 200 MW/800 megawatt-hour battery energy storage system located near Coolidge, Arizona.
The project will utilize lithium-ion technology, designed and manufactured in the U.S. by Tesla and is scheduled to be online in 2025.
The Flatland Energy Storage Project is set to provide significant benefits to the local regional economy, with a capital investment of over $271 million, and an additional $7 million paid to local governments in the form of tax payments.
Millions of dollars will also be spent supporting local small businesses during the lifetime of the project, which will create 60 construction jobs and host two permanent operations positions upon completion.
In addition, Flatland is being seen as contributing to national energy security for the state of Arizona, as well as the broader United States, helping diversify domestic power supply, SRP said.
This is SRP’s second project in partnership with EDPR NA. The first, Brittlebush Solar Park, provides 200 MW of solar energy to SRP customers.
The Flatland Energy Storage Project is located within the Brittlebush Solar Park. The location will allow the battery to store energy from the grid or from the solar facility to best match the output to times of highest customer demand.
SRP "is continuing to develop and deploy safe, cost-effective storage technology as part of the company’s commitment to reducing carbon intensity (from 2005 levels) by 82 percent by 2035 and achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050."
Through its Integrated System Plan, SRP found it will need to at least double the number of generating resources on its power system in the next 10 years to meet increasing energy demand in the Phoenix metropolitan area as it moves forward with the planned retirement of 1,300 MW of coal resources.
SRP currently has nearly 1,300 MW of storage and nearly 3,000 megawatts of carbon-free resources online and serving customers. SRP also has significantly more solar energy and storage capacity under development, which, when operational by 2028, will make nearly half of SRP’s generation carbon free.
