Community owned City Utilities of Springfield in southwest Missouri supplies essential services to over 106,000 residents. These services include electricity, natural gas, water, telecommunications, and transit. Springfield has abundant wind and solar potential, but it has been grappling with balancing supply and demand.
City Utilities of Springfield Installs Lead Battery Storage
The southwest Missouri utility commissioned a lead-battery storage system on November 2, 2017. First, it charges these batteries with spare renewable energy during off-peak times. Then it uses them in peak demand periods to supplement supply.
Battery storage will help source over 35% of City Utilities of Springfield energy from renewables. Because being able to balance variable wind and solar is the key that will open the door. “This is an example of what we’re trying to do to balance renewables in our system,” Scott Miller, general manager said. Moreover, he hopes it will show that battery storage can be economic.
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What Makes This Project Special and Unique
The initiative by City Utilities of Springfield confirms their faith in advanced, sealed lead acid batteries manufactured in their town. These batteries are, as we know, recyclable and non-flammable.
Springfield can now draw power when it needs to, and deploy power when it wants to. Moreover, it has two-and-a-half megawatt hours of energy available for the local community, in the event of an ice storm or grid failure.
This is exciting news for the lead-battery industry. Since our materials are widely available and we collectively recycle 95% of what we manufacture and use. Could it be that we are achieving our rightful place in grid storage? Lithium technology is reaching its limits, and lithium fires spread quickly and are hard to contain. Therefore, It makes more sense to use safe, dependable lead-acid technology for balancing and storing the essential electricity we are accustomed to having on tap.
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Preview Image: Springfield Lead Battery Storage Container
Video Share Link: https://youtu.be/JoCDKSmJOag
