LG Chem, Ltd. (LGCLF.PK) announced today that it has been selected by utility Southern California Edison (SCE)(NYSE: EIX) to provide lithium-ion battery packs for a pilot program involving energy storage systems for residential and small commercial applications.
An LG Chem consortium, working jointly with LG Electronics (LGERF.PK) and LS Industrial Systems, will provide a complete system solution for home energy storage. LG Chem will provide the lithium-ion battery packs; LG Electronics will provide the solar photovoltaic inverter and control and communication equipment; LS Industrial Systems will provide the battery charger; and LG Chem Power, Inc., a subsidiary of LG Chem, will assemble the systems, which will then be supplied to SCE.
The energy storage systems at each location will provide 10 kWh of energy, which can assist in reducing peak power usage by up to 4 kW. Field deployment testing of the systems will begin during 3Q11 and will be completed by the end of 2012.
The companies did not say how many units will be included in the pilot program, or where they will be deployed.
“This marks an important step in the continued and growing development of alternative energy storage devices that can be used in demand response applications for both economic and reliability load management,” said Larry Oliva, director of Tariff Programs and Services at Southern California Edison. “The test program will provide a broad platform for evaluating complete real-world systems with home energy storage, Demand Response (DR) strategies, renewable energy generation (wind and solar), and SCE’s Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). It will also allow us to test how these energy storage systems can help mitigate power shortages, as well as enhance our load shifting capabilities and the distribution system’s overall reliability.”
Last week, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a new law requiring state regulators to set targets for energy storage capacity in the state. And industry and government are turning their attention to energy storage, according to a recent New York Times special report.
