SEOUL, South Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Samsung SDI (KRX:006400) officially announced that it has successfully delivered the world-largest volume of its most innovative batteries to ESS (Energy Storage System) projects in California, USA. Jointly working with global top energy storage solution providers such as AES, Samsung SDI has supplied a total of 240MWh of ESS Li-ion batteries and associated Battery Management Systems.
This 240 MWh ESS portfolio of projects is the world’s largest volume of its kind ever, and comprises around 700,000 battery 94Ah cells manufactured by Samsung SDI. The AES installations alone constitute over 60 percent of delivered batteries, a total of 150 MWh comprising 440,000 of such cells, making it the largest Li-ion battery-based ESS installation in the world.
Samsung SDI pointed out that the capacity totaling 240 MWh corresponds to the energy necessary to power 40,000 households for 4 hours.
In 2015, the USA ESS market was 167 MWh, while the 2016 market rose to 590 MWh, with the recent Samsung SDI related ESS projects volume representing almost half, and the AES installations representing about 25% of the US market in 2016. In aggregate, Samsung SDI batteries accounted for more than 40% of the US electric power ESS market last year.
For these exceptional projects, Samsung SDI supplied the ESS batteries to its partners who in turn, provided the full turn-key installation to their final customers.
One key benefit of these projects is to contribute to California’s Resource Adequacy needs, enabling more renewable energy penetration by storing in Samsung SDI’s ESS batteries some of the renewable electricity generated during the day, and releasing that electricity onto the electric grid when demand is at its maximum.
Such large-scale ESS projects can be used to substitute non-renewable energy resources, as well as to complement natural gas power plants through optimization.
Samsung SDI brought its key differentiators to make these projects possible with its most innovative technologies, its top quality and safety, as well as its most advanced manufacturing capabilities; for a seamless integration from cells to modules to racks.
AES Energy Storage President John Zahurancik pointed out that “A key element of successfully delivering the largest ESS project in the world has been having trusted relationships with our suppliers to ensure a steady supply of quality components for our Advancion platform. We’re pleased to have had Samsung SDI, a certified Advancion supplier for several years, provide batteries to power this record-breaking project.”
In 2015, B3, the Japanese secondary battery research company, presented the ESS market prospect and their report established Samsung SDI as the #1 ESS battery provider with market share at 18%.
Most market research companies agree that the global ESS market is expected to rapidly expand -from 2.3 GWh in 2016 to 14.8 GWh in 2020- over 60 percent of annual average growth.
In particular, the USA market is regarded as the pivotal influencer of the worldwide ESS market with volume expansion -from 590MWh in 2016 to 4.2 GWh in 2020- driven by its continuing improvement and modernization needs of the transmission and distribution assets as well as its continuous renewable energy expansion.
