Member Info for Lindon

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/2019-storage-outlook-utility-procurement-will-drive-deployments-analysts/545448/

2019 Storage Outlook: Utility procurement will drive deployments, analysts say
Rules for energy storage in wholesale markets are being finalized, but deployments are more likely to be driven by utility resource plans.

Published Jan. 8, 2019

At the top of the 2019 agenda for many energy storage stakeholders is the finalization of new rules for energy storage in wholesale power markets under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Order 841, but analysts say the biggest impact on deployments is likely to be less dramatic and more incremental: the growing number of utilities that are including energy storage in their planning process.

"I anticipate the majority of storage development will be fueled by state policies in 2019 rather than changes in federal regulations," Caileen Gamache, senior counsel with Norton Rose Fulbright, told Utility Dive.

Last year, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey adopted energy storage targets, joining the ranks of the two first states to adopt targets, California and Oregon. Meanwhile, even without the impetus of a target, a growing number of utilities are including energy storage in their resource planning processes.

"At the state level, we will see more utility procurement," analyst Alex Eller at Navigant Research told Utility Dive. He noted that just last week El Paso Electric announced the results of a competitive solicitation that includes 100 MW of storage.

In Nevada, the state's largest utility has lobbied against an energy storage target, but in October NV Energy included energy storage in its planning process when it issued a request for proposals for 350 MW of renewable resources and supplemental energy storage. In December, Colorado adopted an order requiring utilities to consider energy storage in their resource planning process.

Those actions will have "a snowball effect" as more and more utilities follow suit and as stakeholders share knowledge and "do the analysis on where storage works and where it doesn't," Eller said. "...the developers that I work with and I are essentially setting storage precedent."

Caileen Gamache
Senior counsel, Norton Rose Fulbright
Gamache said she has seen a rise in RFPs for renewable-plus-storage projects, as well as stand-alone storage projects, issued by investor owned utilities and municipal utilities. She has even seen several developments in the Southeast, a region generally outside the reach of wholesale power markets and where most states do not have programs promoting energy storage.

"The off takers appear to be relying upon bidders and sellers to essentially 'educate' them on all the benefits and uses of storage," Gamache said. "This is one of the most exciting areas of my practice currently, because the developers that I work with and I are essentially setting storage precedent."

One of the results of this trend is that as more utilities incorporate storage into their systems.

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/hawaiian-electric-submits-nations-second-largest-slate-of-battery-projects/545496/

Hawaiian Electric submits more than 1 GWh of battery projects for regulatory review
Jan. 8, 2019

Hawaiian Electric (HECO) submitted seven solar-plus-storage projects on three islands on Thursday to the Public Utilities Commission for review, totaling over 260 MW of solar and 1 GWh or storage, the second-largest announcement of energy storage projects in the country.
The projects' costs range from $0.08 to $0.12 per kWh, which HECO said are lower than the cost of fossil fuel generation in the state. Due to the need to import petroleum for power generation, Hawaii has some of the highest energy bills in the country.
The projects are expected to come online in 2022, and the utility will likely be doing another request for proposals this year, "because we've got to keep the momentum going," HECO senior spokesperson Peter Rosegg told Utility Dive.

Hawaii's investor-owned utility isn't just pushing ahead on adding cleaner energy generation, it's seeking solutions for grid-edge integration.

HECO has more than 80,000 private rooftop solar systems in operation, but the islands don't have a midday peak for energy use, Rosegg said. Especially on Oahu, which he noted has the highest amount of energy use among the state's islands, the grid needs energy most from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

HECO's projects, a low price benchmark for renewables in the state, follow even cheaper solar+storage projects announced in the U.S. mainland over the past couple of years.

In late 2017, Xcel Energy received bids for solar-plus-storage with a median price of $0.036/kWh, and even cheaper wind-plus-storage pairings. In Tucson Electric Power's landmark $0.045/kWh contract, storage played a smaller part in the solar-plus-storage pairing than it does in the case of HECO's agreements.

And Heco is also looking to add battery storage without a renewable energy pairing, to help offset the growing amount of distributed generation on its system.

"We're investing in other storage, our own storage, that's not as closely tied to a particular project," Rosegg said.

HECO's subsidiaries have more than 500 MW of renewable energy under contract currently, and adding storage is "absolutely essential as we get on our level of renewables," Rosegg said.

"These projects are again just another trend indicator" for increasingly favorable economics, Lon Huber, energy regulatory director at Navigant, told Utility Dive.

"Here's a state that has high climate renewable goals and a lot of [distributed generation] solar, and how are they responding? They got rid of real-time metering... they're engaging in cost effective solar-plus-storage plays," Huber said. According to his estimates, the next states to follow Hawaii's investment in solar-plus-storage will be coastal, like California, before the trend hits the mainland.

Baines Simmonds accounts showing signed off 19 December have now been filled at company house.
Operating profit down by 50% and turnover down 15%.

For that matter, if we're into conspiracy theories, it could also be a larger player with a longer term plan whomis intent on acquiring a higher % and keeping the sp low with an eventual view of making an offer for the company. And it's not necessarily so that we get to know about it because some private USA hedgie funds are not afraid to operate outside the normal UK disclosure rules.

Yep, right on BBN. Just to reiterate Fortune's Xmas message.

"Work towards a listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has commenced. Listing on the JSE will give South African capital exposure to the Bushveld’s story while broadening the Company's access to capital to facilitate its ambitious growth plans and enhance its profile further in the global capital markets" funding would come "from outside of Bushveld Minerals"

Also of course, the BE 5 point business plan (as clearly outlined in in its 3Q update) points to where they are heading with at least some of the additional the funding. As stated, those plans for B.E. would be funded "from outside of Bushveld Minerals"

Should be all ok. Although we would prefer confirmation, it's possible no news in this case is probably good news. If they'd have had problems leading to another material/major set back delay... I think they would probably have had to disclose asap.

beatthebroker... thanx, imo the generators haven't any incentive under the payment system.... could even be an incentive to switch off, sit back and do nothing! Surely a better way might be to use those monies as initial grants to incentivise the installation of battery storage systems?

It's going to be an amazing journey indeed RK. Hopefully we will hear soon that they got that battery commissioned so that train can properly get started and chugging away on its journey. Be a bit of blow if it has to go all the way back to the steamworks for repair again! I for one will breath a sigh of relief if we get a note this week that's been done.

Time to get a couple of batteries perhaps?

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/scotland/idle-wind-farms-pull-in-125m-for-dumping-energy-dgfp33jzd

Idle wind farms pull in £125m for dumping energy
Scots turbines get most of National Grid payoff

January 6 2019, 12:01am,
The Sunday Times
Energy
Scottish wind farms discarded enough electricity in 2018 to power 500,000 households for a year

Green energy companies were handed record sums to switch off turbines in 2018, with some Scottish wind farms generating millions of pounds to “discard” up to a third of potential output.

Analysis of data published by National Grid shows that constraint payments to wind farm operators hit £125m — 15% more than the previous highest sum in 2017.

Hope they got that Eskome battery commissioned and up and running!

* missed Clockwork Rsearch Limited off the list. Five all told. The latest acquisition... Safeskys... is not listed but that had an extension from July/18 and is due to file this month.

Gazette notices of compulsory strike off have been issued for five of AIR's subsidiaries: Cabot Aviation Services Limited, Air Partner Consulting Limited, Baines Simmons Limited, Aviation Compliance Limited.

Companies House Record: https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/04295495

Two subsidiaries, Baines Simmons and Clockwork Research, are now both 2 months over the deadline to file annual accounts.

Accounts overdue!

Next accounts (made up to 31 January 2018)
Were due by 31 October 2018

Last accounts made up to 31 January 2017

Alfa... An average U.S. household uses about 10,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity each year. A watt is a unit of power, or energy per unit time, so it's the rate at which energy is being used. A kilowatt-hour (or 1000 watt-hours) is a unit of energy, so 10,000 kWh is how much total energy each household uses over the course of a year. This means that each household, on average, uses energy at a rate of about 1 kilowatt (1000 watts, which equal to ten 100-watt light bulbs). One megawatt is equal to one million watts, so for one instant, one megawatt can power 1000 homes. A better question to ask is how many homes can a megawatt-hour (MWh) provide with energy for one hour? If one home needs 1 kWh of energy for one hour, then 1 MWh of energy can sustain 1000 homes for one hour.

YTSS... yep. ''Tis enough for a fair sized city!

A gigawatt equals 1 billion watts, usual planning calculations estimate that's sufficient to power up to 1 million energy efficient homes for one year.

... obvioulsy also includes the road ahead for Bushveld Energy and it's five point business plan:

The business plan for Bushveld Energy focuses on five types of revenue-generating activities in the midstream and downstream segments of the vanadium value chain. These activities have a low capital requirement relative to the mining business. These five activities broadly include:
1. Electrolyte manufacturing, including building and operating a chemicals plant that purifies vanadium feedstock and converts it into a liquid electrolyte. The electrolyte is sold to VRFB companies or direct users / buyers of VRFB systems;
2. Renting (or leasing) vanadium electrolyte, which is a new product under development. In the product, Bushveld Energy can retain ownership of electrolyte and rent it to the VRFB user. The product is unique to VRFB energy storage technology and essential not just to cover vanadium price peaks, but to also implement a long-term pricing strategy which reduces the upfront capital cost to make VRFB one of the most commercially competitive energy storage technologies in the market;
3. Assembly of VRFBs through an investment in the construction of an assembly plant for a VRFB product (that will be operated by another party). This activity could involve direct investment into a VRFB company or companies that would own the facility as well as the technology;
4. Direct selling of VRFBs in African markets as a value-adding local firm. In addition to identifying opportunities suitable for VRFB energy storage, this activity includes developing local logistics chains covering importation, transport, installation and maintenance of the VRFBs and key components (e.g. electrolyte);
5. Developing and investing in African energy storage projects, which goes beyond purely identification of suitable sites and extends to defining the economic business case for VRFB installations. The activity also includes designing the technical and commercial structure of projects that use VRFBs. Finally, the activity includes direct equity investment into such projects.
Implementation of these five activities will continue to follow principles of strategic partnerships and implementation only where value can be created. Implementation of many of these activities will be done in collaboration with external parties, including development agencies, funders, renewable energy developers and energy storage component providers.

The potential African market when taken as a whole seems to be a reasonable size!
Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho,
Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao T

Hopefully there will be an important (and positive) milestone news release tomorrow that indicates the battery commissioning was successfully completed. They published their target for that as being wrapped up before the SA holiday period.... they have to follow that up and let the market know if the target was met or if there are further delays.

Either way could have a direct impact on the sp. but no news one way or the other, would cause further uncertainty, that would be the worst outcome for the short term sp level imo.

* Eskom

Hopefully the battery commissioning plans haven't suffered any further delays, no news isn't necessary bad news but some indication the target was met prior to the holiday would be good.

Eskom VRFB project
Preparatory work for the completion of battery commissioning for the deployment of the maiden VRFB from UET with the national utility, Eskom, in South Africa recommenced at site and is due to be completed before the start of the South African holidays in December 2018. The system is co-owned by Bushveld Energy and the Industrial Development Corporation ("IDC").

The delay from the original timeline for the project, which saw delivery of hardware at the end of Q2 2018, resulted from the unexpected contamination of the electrolyte that occurred during the filling stage, which was discovered during system commissioning that made the VRFB inoperable. Without a mixed-acid electrolyte facility in South Africa, filtration of the electrolyte in-country was not possible. A remediation strategy was implemented in August 2018 to replace the electrolyte and certain contaminated components of the system. Site work for remediation began in October 2018 and commissioning restarted at the end of November 2018.