Luminant, a subsidiary of Vistra Energy, has announced that start of operations at its Upton 2 battery energy storage system in Texas.

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Image: Luminant begins operations at Upton 2 energy storage system in Texas. Photo: Courtesy of Peter Mathijssen/FreeImages.com.

The Upton 2 battery system is located on the site of Luminant’s 180MW Upton 2 Solar Power Plant in Upton County, Texas.

The company claims that the battery system is the largest energy storage project in Texas and seventh largest in the US.

Luminant was awarded a $1m grant from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for this project in October 2018. The grant program is a part of the Texas Emissions Reduction Plan.

Upton 2 is equipped with a 10-MW/42-MWh lithium-ion energy storage system to capture excess solar energy produced during the day. When energy demand in ERCOT is high in late afternoon and early evenings, the battery system releases the captured power.

The battery system is also capable of taking advantage of low-priced grid power during times of high wind output to charge the batteries so that to be available for higher demand periods.

The company, in a statement, said: “The solar facility continues to deliver on the company’s strategic plan to strengthen and expand its integrated businesses through enhanced retail solar offerings and diversity across its generation fleet. It is also direct evidence that competitive generators will invest in batteries in Texaswhen supported by market economics.”

Luminant’s Vistra is also currently developing the 300-MW/1,200-MWh storage system at its Moss Landing Power Plant in California, which the company claims the world’s largest battery energy storage project. The project is scheduled to start commercial operations in the fourth quarter of 2020.

With a diverse portfolio of natural gas, nuclear, coal, and solar facilities, Luminant has nearly 41,000MW of generation across 12 states in the US.