Tesla’s utility-scale batteries are coming to Texas
Elon Musk is bringing his utility-scale battery ambitions to the Lone Star state.
An under-the-radar Tesla subsidiary has been at work building a 100 MW energy storage project in Angleton, Texas, according to an application with the Public Utilities Commission of Texas and other documents. Bloomberg was the first to report on the documents and link a previously unknown subsidiary to Tesla.
Gambit Energy Storage LLC applied for an application with the Public Utilities Commission of Texas, the regulatory body charged with overseeing the state's electric utilities, in June of last year. Gambit said in the application, viewed by TechCrunch, that it intends to provide wholesale electricity and grid-balancing services on the Energy Reliability Council of Texas grid. The project is located in Angleton, a town about 50 miles west of Galveston near the Gulf Coast.
The project's proposed date of commercial operation is June 1, according to reporting from Bloomberg.
The Texas grid has been under the microscope since mid-February, when an unprecedented blast of Arctic weather knocked 46,000 MW of power off line at its peak-more than a third of the system's overall generation capacity. The disaster left millions of Texans in sub-freezing temperatures for days. The ERCOT Board of Directors fired its CEO and the chair of the PUCT resigned in the wake of the catastrophe, while legislators at the capital mull major changes to Texas power market operations.
Tesla already has contracts for battery storage systems with California Utilities Southern California Edison and PG&E, but this is the company's first major project elsewhere.
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