Salt River Project innovates new storage plan

Salt River Project (SRP) is announcing a new, innovative storage plan aiming to bring long-duration power reliability to Arizona residents. Chico Hunter, Manager of Innovation and Development at SRP, and Giovanni Damato, President of CMBlu Energy join Arizona Horizon to share more.

SPR has teamed up with CMBlu Energy for a pilot project that will utilize solar energy and discharge it overnight.

It will supplement SRP’s power system, helping provide stored power for longer periods, especially in times of fluctuating, high energy demand.

Construction is expected to begin in early 2025, with the project operational by December 2025.

“What we are providing at CMBlu is an alternative to the most commercially available energy storage on the grid today which is lithium-ion,” said Hunter.

Instead of using lithium, CMBlu uses organic materials, like carbon and solids which improve energy density storage. With businesses and customers on the rise in the Phoenix Metropolitan area, SRP has added more solar energy due to a period of heavy load growth.

Pairing storage with solar energy allows SRP to keep the grid for customers even when the sun is not available.

“Today SRP is installing lithium-ion batteries typically with a four-hour duration,” said Damato. “This type of a system is something that can run all night long and is big enough to power 1,100 homes for 10 hours.”

The pilot project will be located at the Copper Crossing Energy and Resource Center.