Dec 17 2015
AES Energy Storage and LG Chem today announced a multi-year agreement that provides access to a gigawatt-hour (GWh) of lithium-ion battery capacity with the option to procure additional capacity for the AES Advancion® energy storage solution. Utilities, developers, and power system operators seeking to install storage to lower costs, improve reliability, and reduce emissions will benefit from the combination of AES, the leading grid-scale energy storage integrator, and LG Chem, the leading battery supplier.
The agreement covers the supply of several of LG Chem’s battery modules that have been designed and configured for AES’ Advancion grid-scale energy storage solution. The agreement provides access to batteries to meet the needs of Advancion installations currently under construction and allows AES to purchase additional batteries to meet the growth for future Advancion system sales. For reference, 1 GWh of batteries is capable of powering 250 – 1,000 MW of energy storage installations, depending on the needs of the customer.
The global grid-scale energy storage sector has entered a new growth phase, with more than 1,400 MW of advanced energy storage projects announced or in operation today, compared to less than 60 MW just six years ago. Navigant Research projects that more than 11 GW of energy storage capacity will be installed annually by 2020 across 22 countries. AES previously announced installations for various customers in six countries totaling 384 MW in operation, construction, or late stage development, representing the world’s largest fleet.
“We are excited to provide utilities, developers, and businesses access to high quality batteries at the best prices as part of the complete Advancion grid storage solution,” said John Zahurancik, President of AES Energy Storage. “LG Chem is one of our most trusted battery partners and this agreement provides a new scale of activity to serve announced projects as well as installations under development by our utility partners.”
This groundbreaking agreement leverages LG Chem’s manufacturing and supply chain from the transportation sector and ensures access to the most cost-effective, high quality batteries available today to supply Advancion. AES designed Advancion for sale to third party utilities, independent power producers, and power system operators seeking a proven and future-proofed energy storage technical platform. Advancion 4, AES’ fourth generation integrated energy storage solution, incorporates insights from serving utilities globally for more than 30 years and lessons learned from more than eight years of real world operations of large-scale, grid-connected battery systems built to serve the needs of a long-term asset owner. Advancion 4 is the only deployed platform that enables long-term system performance and degradation management from the start with a unique system architecture, allowing future upgrades to take advantage of the best components at the time.
“AES is one of the world’s most experienced and well-respected integrators of grid-scale energy storage systems, and we are proud to provide our lithium-ion batteries for their Advancion solution,” said Ungbeom Lee, President of LG Chem’s Energy Storage Solutions business unit. “Our agreement provides a roadmap for us to engage most effectively in the delivery of high performance, reliable and cost-effective energy storage systems around the world.”
LG Chem has achieved market leadership in the highly competitive market for HEV and EV battery systems, where product performance, quality, durability and cost are prerequisites. Battery cells for automotive and stationary storage systems are manufactured to the same exacting quality standards at facilities in Korea and the United States. The supply agreement covers battery modules with configurations ranging from 30 minutes to 4 hours of discharge duration. AES and LG Chem have also agreed to collaborate on joint development initiatives that will ensure continued competitiveness of the Advancion product in meeting the requirements of utilities and system operators around the world.
In 2014, LG Chem was the first of several battery manufacturers to complete the Advancion Certification process and become a qualified supplier of batteries for Advancion 4. Subsequently, LG Chem was selected to provide batteries for three large-scale Advancion arrays, including the Warrior Run Energy Storage Array that was officially opened on November 13, 2015.