Multimode battery energy storage system for custom power applications

EPRI and Salt River Project (SRP) have installed a multi-mode transportable battery energy storage system (TBESS) manufactured by Omnion Power Engineering Corporation, as part of a joint tailored collaboration project. The TBESS is capable of operating in both power quality and power management modes. In power quality (PQ) mode, it is capable of protecting the loads up to 2 MW / 2 MVA for up to 15 seconds against voltage disturbances including complete outages. In power management (PM) mode, it can deliver 200 kW for 45 minutes, i.e., 150 kWh. The power management modes are, peak shaving, block load discharge, load following, voltage regulation and spinning reserve. TBESS has been under test at an SRP site since August 1997. In addition to the disturbances in the utility distribution system against which TBESS protected the loads during this period, TBESS performance was tested for more than 150 simulated and real outages lasting several seconds. This paper presents mainly the power quality performance results during this test period.