Re-imagining the energy grid ... through batteries (Two Indicators)

Summary

Re-imagining the Energy Grid Through Batteries: A Deep Dive into California and Texas

Planet Money, hosted by NPR, delves into the transformative role of battery storage in modernizing the energy grid. In the episode titled "Re-imagining the Energy Grid ... Through Batteries (Two Indicators)", released on January 29, 2025, hosts Cooper Katz McKim and Darian Woods explore how grid-scale batteries have revolutionized renewable energy integration in California and Texas. This comprehensive summary captures the episode's key discussions, insights, and conclusions, enriched with notable quotes and timestamps for an engaging read.

Introduction: The Dawn of Grid-Scale Batteries

The episode opens by tracing the journey of battery storage from a nascent concept to a cornerstone of the modern energy grid. Beginning with Nancy Skinner's legislative efforts in California, the hosts set the stage for understanding the challenges and breakthroughs in battery technology.

Cooper Katz McKim introduces Nancy Skinner's pivotal role:

"In 2008, Nancy Skinner was elected to the California State Legislature. So technically my term began in 2009." (00:52)

Darian Woods highlights the early challenges:

"When the sun doesn't shine or the wind doesn't blow, there's no power. Several people approached Nancy to raise this issue. We're going to have to figure out how to store it." (01:12)

California: Pioneering Battery Storage

California emerges as the trailblazer in adopting grid-scale batteries, driven by proactive legislation and a commitment to renewable energy. The state's initial struggles with storage solutions set the groundwork for eventual success.

Legislative Beginnings and Optimism Nancy Skinner's optimism was put to the test when her bill mandating utilities to purchase battery storage faced skepticism:

"This is not real. Like another California pipe dream." (01:36)

Despite early setbacks, the bill passed in 2010, laying the foundation for future advancements. The real breakthrough came in 2021 when battery technology rapidly advanced, making grid-scale storage both feasible and economically viable.

On-Site Exploration at Cal Flats Cooper and Darian recount their visit to Cal Flats, a massive battery storage facility owned by Erivon:

"I connected with a battery storage facility that's connected to a solar farm spread across 2,900 acres." (04:22)

Justin Johnson, COO of Erivon, explains the operational dynamics:

"There's excess solar in the middle of the day, so the power price can be low. So we can take the extra solar that's produced in the day from the arrays and store it for use later in the evening or when it's needed most, when the sun is going down." (06:06)

This strategic storage allows California to utilize renewable energy efficiently, ensuring a stable power supply even when natural conditions are unfavorable.

Technological Insights The battery systems, akin to those in Tesla cars, utilize lithium-ion technology, enabling rapid charging and discharging to meet fluctuating energy demands. The cooling systems maintain optimal battery performance, especially crucial in California's intense heat.

Market Demand and Growth The surge in demand from tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, coupled with the global rise in electricity needs from data centers and electric vehicles, has spurred exponential growth in battery storage. By 2021, California's battery capacity expanded from powering 10 million homes in 2019 to 13 million by the following year:

"In 2019, California had limited battery storage capacity. In April of last year, batteries could power 10 million homes for a period of time. Just six months later, that number grew to 13 million homes." (09:49)

Texas: A Free-Market Approach Under Pressure

Contrasting California's structured and planned expansion, Texas adopted a more laissez-faire, market-driven strategy towards battery storage. This section examines how Texas's approach both benefits and strains its energy grid.

The September 2023 Crisis On a scorching September day, Texas faced a critical test of its energy infrastructure. As demand surged with the heat, the state's limited battery reserves were stretched to their limits. Wind power generation was low, and conventional power plants faltered, raising fears of blackouts reminiscent of the deadly winter outages from prior years.

Eolian's Intervention Stephanie Smith, COO of Eolian, explains her company's role during the crisis:

"It was just one of those perfect storms of events where a few went offline at the same time in the DFW area." (13:41)

Eolian's battery systems, designed to provide ancillary services—rapid adjustments to ensure grid stability—proved pivotal:

"You don't want excitement on a grid. You don't want surprises. And batteries are amazing at doing all of those things and reacting within microseconds of whenever their need is." (16:14)

When electricity prices skyrocketed to $5,000 per megawatt-hour amid the crisis, batteries like those of Eolian were incentivized to discharge, stabilizing the grid and preventing blackouts:

"It was unexpected and went really fast. And because batteries can react within microseconds, a bunch of batteries jumped in, including ours, and stopped that frequency fall and brought the grid back into balance and kept the lights on." (17:43)

Market Dynamics and Risks Texas's free-market environment encourages rapid battery deployment, but it also introduces volatility. Unlike California's long-term contracts and planning, Texas relies on real-time market signals to drive investment and operation:

"In Texas if the price goes very low, well then maybe some operators need to stop producing power. If there's a spike in the price of electricity, great. That gives operators like Eolian the incentive to put more electricity onto the grid." (14:51)

This approach fosters innovation and responsiveness but can lead to vulnerabilities during extreme events.

Technological and Economic Intersection

The episode underscores the critical intersection of technology advancement and economic viability in making grid-scale batteries a reality. As Justin Johnson of Arivon notes:

"We're at that really nice intersection where the technology has improved enough, the cost has come down at that intersection where you're meeting the demand at the price they need to be successful." (07:52)

This synergy has enabled widespread adoption, transforming how renewables interact with the grid and enhancing overall energy reliability.

Comparative Analysis: California vs. Texas

While California and Texas both embrace battery storage, their differing approaches yield unique outcomes:

• California benefits from centralized planning and long-term contracts, ensuring consistent investment and integration of renewables with storage solutions.

• Texas leverages a free-market model, encouraging swift deployment and flexibility but occasionally facing stability challenges during unforeseen demand spikes.

Future Prospects and Conclusions

Looking ahead, the episode posits that the success of grid-scale batteries in California sets a precedent for other states, including Texas, to follow suit. As demand for electricity continues to climb globally, driven by data centers, electric vehicles, and digital infrastructure, the role of batteries becomes increasingly indispensable.

Justin Johnson emphasizes the ongoing potential:

"There's just tremendous demand, tremendous demand for it." (09:35)

The race between states like California and Texas mirrors the classic tortoise and the hare fable, where both structured planning and agile market responses play crucial roles in shaping the future of energy. The episode suggests that a balanced approach, drawing strengths from both models, could pave the way for a resilient and sustainable energy grid.

Key Takeaways

1. Battery Storage is Essential: Grid-scale batteries are pivotal in integrating renewable energy sources, ensuring reliability, and stabilizing the grid.

2. Policy and Market Dynamics Matter: Structured legislative support, as seen in California, and market-driven incentives, as in Texas, both significantly influence the adoption and effectiveness of battery storage.

3. Technological Advancements Drive Growth: Improvements in battery technology and reductions in costs have made large-scale storage feasible and economically viable.

4. Future Expansion is Inevitable: With rising global electricity demands and the continuous push towards a low-carbon grid, battery storage will play an increasingly critical role across various states and industries.

Notable Quotes

• Cooper Katz McKim: "In 2008, Nancy Skinner was elected to the California State Legislature. So technically my term began in 2009." (00:52)

• Darian Woods: "When the sun doesn't shine or the wind doesn't blow, there's no power. Several people approached Nancy to raise this issue. We're going to have to figure out how to store it." (01:12)

• Justin Johnson: "We're at that really nice intersection where the technology has improved enough, the cost has come down at that intersection where you're meeting the demand at the price they need to be successful." (07:52)

• Stephanie Smith: "It was just one of those perfect storms of events where a few went offline at the same time in the DFW area." (13:41)

• Anand Narayanan: "It was unexpected and went really fast. And because batteries can react within microseconds, a bunch of batteries jumped in, including ours, and stopped that frequency fall and brought the grid back into balance and kept the lights on." (17:43)

Conclusion

"Re-imagining the Energy Grid Through Batteries" offers a nuanced exploration of how battery storage is reshaping the energy landscape in the United States. By juxtaposing the methodical, policy-driven approach of California with Texas's dynamic, market-oriented strategy, the episode provides valuable insights into the multifaceted evolution of the energy grid. As battery technology continues to advance and market demands escalate, the integration of grid-scale batteries promises to be a cornerstone in the quest for a sustainable and resilient energy future.

Transcript

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[NPR Planet Money Host]

This is Planet Money from NPR.

[Cooper Katz McKim]

In 2008, Nancy Skinner was elected to the California State Legislature. So technically my term began in 2009.

[Darian Woods]

Nancy has witnessed the state's vision for clean energy firsthand. Soon after she was elected, a bill was being considered to get more of their electricity than ever from renewables. But there was a problem.

[Cooper Katz McKim]

When the sun doesn't shine or the wind doesn't blow, there's no power. Several people approached Nancy to raise this issue. We're going to have to figure out how to store it.

[Darian Woods]

And one way to store energy, a battery. Extra solar and wind electrons that aren't needed on the grid could flow into a battery. The problem was, though, grid scale storage wasn't really a thing.

[Cooper Katz McKim]

Nonetheless, Nancy was optimistic that eventually it would happen if you created a market signal. So she introduced a bill requiring utilities to purchase a certain percentage of battery storage when they bought electricity. Nancy remembers pushback, that this was just pie in the sky. This is not real. Like another California pipe dream. Still, in 2010, the bill passed, although nothing really happened. Grid scale batteries remained a pie in the sky concept for years. And then all of a sudden, in 2021, batteries took off. Hello and welcome to Planet Money. I'm Cooper Katz McKim and and I'm Darian Woods.

[Darian Woods]

After years of nothing, grid scale batteries are now widely used and growing fast. Basically, the same tech that's in your phone is now helping power millions of homes across America. How did that happen? And what does the newfound success mean for the grid?

[Cooper Katz McKim]

Today on the show, we go on a kind of road trip for electric battery storage two stories from two states. We'll begin in California, where battery storage first took off in the US to see how the state supported its wind and solar energy markets. And then we'll look at how battery storage was put to the test in Texas. These Stories come from Planet Money's sister show the indicator. But we just ran a miniseries on batteries and energy.

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[Darian Woods]

Cats for Kim, producer extraordinaire with the indicator. You're back from your travels west. We sent you on a journey to see these batteries firsthand.

[Cooper Katz McKim]

I am back indeed from the very sunny California where there are enough batteries to power 13 million homes. I wanted to go because I have no idea how batteries actually work and.

[Darian Woods]

I hope you learned this on the trip.

[Cooper Katz McKim]

I did. I connected with a battery storage facility that's connected to a solar farm spread across 2,900 acres.

[Darian Woods]

That is huge. It's the equivalent of more than 2,000 football fields.

[Cooper Katz McKim]

It really did feel huge. It took a long time to drive through. The whole operation is called Cal Flats. It's owned by an independent power producer called Erivon. Justin Johnson is the chief operating officer there.

[Justin Johnson]

Will you grab my hard hat back there, Anand?

[Anand Narayanan]

Yeah.

[Cooper Katz McKim]

Justin gave me a tour of the facility along with Anand Narayanan Arivan's senior VP of Asset management.

[Justin Johnson]

I lost for a couple of hard.

[Cooper Katz McKim]

Hats at the battery storage facility itself. There are rows of white containers not much taller than a person. I learned this is where it all happens. It's like a series of shelves. Imagine server racks, right? So it's a bunch of server racks. Like you have all your PCs and a bunch of PCs stacked together which have the batteries in them, the in water inside them. There's three per door.

[Justin Johnson]

So they're stacked. If you open up one of these.

[Cooper Katz McKim]

Doors, could we open one of them up?

[Justin Johnson]

No.

[Cooper Katz McKim]

Yeah, we don't have the keys.

[Justin Johnson]

Unfortunately, they're operating.

[Darian Woods]

Yeah, that was a pretty fast no, Cooper.

[Cooper Katz McKim]

I just wanted to open the door. I don't see the problem here.

[Darian Woods]

The do not press button was so tempting.

[Cooper Katz McKim]

If I see a button, I want to press it. Either way, they told me that each one of these cabinets holds the batteries themselves. They're about the size of a large briefcase and are manufactured by Tesla. The batteries are similar to what would go in a Tesla car, which is also made up of lithium ion.

[Darian Woods]

And this site is packed with energy. Right. I heard that Carl Flats has enough storage capacity to power 60,000 homes over an afternoon.

[Cooper Katz McKim]

I know. Yeah, it is wild. Justin told me how this all works.

[Justin Johnson]

There's excess solar in the middle of the day, so the power price can be low. So we can take the extra solar that's produced in the day from the arrays and store it for use later in the evening or when it's needed most, when the sun is going down.

[Cooper Katz McKim]

That hum you're hearing behind Justin is the H vac system keeping the batteries cool because they're charging from that solar energy and probably also the heat just from how hot it is outside. The sun was very strong when I visited. Yeah, let's move to the shade.

[Justin Johnson]

Yeah, that's like rule number one in solar is don't visit in the summer.

[Darian Woods]

Sounds like you might have got a bit of a California tan, Cooper.

[Cooper Katz McKim]

Yeah, the sun is not my friend as a red headed man.

[Darian Woods]

So it sounds like you'll be happier when the sun goes down. Which is when Arivon sells the power. When prices are high. Arivon then moves the renewable electrons onto underground cables to transmission lines to the grid. For this power specifically, Arivon has two customers that buy this power. Apple and pge, California's biggest electricity provider.

[Justin Johnson]

It's such a big facility, there's so much power generated that it's hard to find one buyer to take it all. So we ended up splitting the output to two different buyers of electricity.

[Cooper Katz McKim]

That means that somebody's home, say in Fresno, they turn on their lights and. Or literally anyone who takes PG and E. Exactly.

[Justin Johnson]

Yeah. This power is kind of. I mean, an electron's an electron. It's hard to tell where it's coming from once it hits a transmission line. But.

[Darian Woods]

All right, so how did we actually get here? Remember that utility providers were saying to Nancy Skinner that this was some kind of pie in the sky, California dreaming concept?

[Cooper Katz McKim]

Yeah, we put that question to Justin.

[Justin Johnson]

Right. So like all the scale and advancements that went in the manufacturing to make it to bring the scale up and then to drive the cost down. Just weren't there yet to do it economically. So we're at that really nice intersection where the technology has improved enough, the cost has come down at that intersection where you're meeting the demand at the price they need to be successful, where it allows us to build these sorts of plants to serve that need.

[Darian Woods]

And so what we're left with is a totally new way for renewables to interact with the electricity grid. The power created by the sun or wind can go further now, tapped into whenever a customer like Apple or PG&E wants it.

[Justin Johnson]

Very significant. Yeah. So that was one of the big knock on renewal. It always has been. It's intermittent. But that hurt us financially as well because we were paid less for our power because we were intermittent. So when you pair storage with solar, now we can. The people we sell power to, it's more valuable to them because we can provide them power when they want it most. We can provide them a fixed shape. Meaning tell us how much power you want in any given hour of the day and we'll design a plant to meet your needs. Exactly.

[Cooper Katz McKim]

This new reliability in renewables is very attractive to tech companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon. They already use solar and wind power. But they have power hungry data centers to feed things like artificial intelligence. So they're buying up battery storage too.

[Darian Woods]

Tech companies aren't alone. Electricity demand is spiking worldwide due to data centers, but also electric cars, trains, cryptocurrency, mining. Demand is also coming from grid services like serving as a backup power if there's ever a blackout due to maybe an overworked grid.

[Justin Johnson]

I think if you have a solar plant or a battery plant or a combination anywhere in the US that's ready to be built these days, you can find an off taker, you know, someone to sell the power. There's just tremendous demand, tremendous demand for it.

[Cooper Katz McKim]

In 2019, California had limited battery storage capacity. In April of last year, batteries could power 10 million homes for a period of time. Just six months later, that number grew to 13 million homes.

[Darian Woods]

California has a long history of expanding its alternative energy sources. Historically, the Golden State has been way ahead of the curve on renewables, going all the way back to the 1980s with support and subsidies from both Republican and Democratic governors. But when it comes to the ongoing battery expansion, Justin Johnson says things are just getting started.

[Justin Johnson]

But this phenomenon you've seen in California, it's going to occur elsewhere in the US it's just because California has the highest penetration level of renewables anywhere in the US and it created the demand for storage. As penetration levels increase throughout the US as they have in Texas and elsewhere, the storage market is going to follow in those areas too, and everyone's ready for that.

[Cooper Katz McKim]

Arivon Justin's company, Arivon believes in grid scale battery storage so much it's invested $2 billion in the space. They have five facilities in California, including Cal Flats, and it's looking at six more.

[Darian Woods]

California got where it was because of planning from politicians like Nancy Skinner, but in Texas they take a bit more of a hands off, free market, rodeo type way of doing things.

[Cooper Katz McKim]

So let's go to Texas. I'm going to hop out here and Darian let you and Indicator co host Waylon Wong pick it up after the break.

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[Anand Narayanan]

On a hot September day in 2023, the operators of Texas Power Grid were getting nervous. The warmth from an unusually hot summer was pushing later into the year. That meant more air conditioners, more fans and more staying inside.

[Darian Woods]

But keeping up with that thirst for electricity was a scramble. The sun was setting earlier as the Summer gave way to fall and that meant less solar power. In the evening that day, the wind was forecast to be low, so not much wind power. Just when people got home and turned on their ACs and TVs and ovens, also a few power plants were out of commission.

[Anand Narayanan]

Watching all of this with Stephanie Smith. She's the chief operating officer of Eolian, which is a company that among other things, builds battery plants in Texas.

[NPR Planet Money Host]

It was just one of those perfect storms of events where a few went offline at the same time in the DFW area.

[Anand Narayanan]

For Texans, the deadly winter blackouts from a couple years earlier were front of mind. And the question that evening in September was could Texas grid batteries save the day this time?

[Darian Woods]

Texas approach to the power grid is rather different than the one in California. California takes more of a longer term planning approach. Project approval is finalised after more assessment of how generators might fit into the these plans. And the state offers long term contracts to give electricity generators certainty before they invest in say, a new grid scale battery project.

[Anand Narayanan]

Texas, on the other hand, is a more boisterous free market. It's not that Texas has no regulation or government intervention whatsoever, it's just comparatively hands off. And that can put companies wanting to install batteries at the whim of the invisible hand.

[Darian Woods]

But to Stephanie Smith, the chief operating officer for Eolian, that's the way her battery building company likes it.

[NPR Planet Money Host]

We'll have more risk in some cases, but yeah, that's the idea. We're more risk, more reward.

[Darian Woods]

In Texas if the price goes very low, well then maybe some operators need to stop producing power. If there's a spike in the price of electricity, great. That gives operators like Aeolian the incentive to put more electricity onto the grid.

[Anand Narayanan]

And one opportunity for reward that Stephanie's company saw was in helping top up the grid for short periods of time when a lot of people wanted electricity but there wasn't enough being generated. And the company sees that opportunity by building giant battery plants.

[NPR Planet Money Host]

Picture a football field full of shipping containers and you kind of know what a battery project looks like at the scale that we're building.

[Darian Woods]

Imagine rows and rows of those shipping containers filled with like hundreds of electric car batteries. The easiest use case to imagine is overnight when the sun's not shining on solar panels. You know, the price of electricity could be high and Eolian then releases some of its batteries. And then when the sun is shining the next day and electricity is cheap, it tops back up those batteries.

[Anand Narayanan]

But actually a big part of what Eolian does is what's called ancillary services. This is kind of like top up and maintenance to ensure a steady stream of electricity through the wires, regardless of whether it was originally generated by renewable or fossil fuel sources. By putting a little juice into the wires when it's running low and taking it out when it could get overloaded, the overall grid becomes more stable.

[NPR Planet Money Host]

You don't want excitement on a grid. You don't want surprises. And batteries are amazing at doing all of those things and reacting within microseconds of whenever their need is.

[Darian Woods]

And that day in September 2023 was the ultimate test of whether Texas's free market batteries, like the ones that Stephanie's company owns, could stabilize the grid and avoid blackouts.

[NPR Planet Money Host]

And you remember these moments because for anyone in the company working on this stuff, it. It gives you a heart attack every time it happens.

[Anand Narayanan]

Demand was high. Generation was low, at least in the places that needed it. The power grid operators pleaded with Texans to limit their power use minutes.

[Darian Woods]

They just issued another notice to conserve energy.

[Schwab Advertiser]

It's a step up from the weather watch.

[Darian Woods]

As evening came, Texas's power reserves dwindled. A bunch of wind electricity was being produced in the south, but was overloading the wires, taking them to the north, where a lot of the demand was. This was a dangerous situation of congestion. At one point, people in Stephanie's company noticed the signs of a huge gap in electricity needs.

[Anand Narayanan]

The grid operators sounded an elevated emergency alert. The alert just below the level of potential rolling blackouts. And beyond just alerts. The electricity market was going ballistic. A megawatt hour of electricity usually goes for a little over $100. It was now hitting 5,000. If there was ever an incentive for companies to discharge their batteries, it was now.

[NPR Planet Money Host]

It was unexpected and went really fast. And because batteries can react within microseconds, a bunch of batteries jumped in, including ours, and stopped that frequency fall and brought the grid back into balance and kept the lights on. So that was a fun experience. Very stressful.

[Anand Narayanan]

Stephanie's got some threshold for fun.

[Darian Woods]

Yeah. Living on the edge of the grid.

[Anand Narayanan]

That should be their new company tagline. Eolian's batteries drew down their electricity. Given that high electricity price of $5,000, they were presumably rewarded handsomely for doing so. As the night progressed, Texans turned off their washing machines and microwaves and went to bed. Partly thanks to batteries, there had been no blackouts in Texas.

[Darian Woods]

It's like the duck paddling. You guys are the feet paddling very fast, and the duck just cruises along the pond.

[NPR Planet Money Host]

That's exactly Right. If we're doing our jobs, nobody knows. I nearly had a heart attack, but you kept your AC on.

[Darian Woods]

So is this a story about the beauty of prices invisibly guiding company behavior all around Texas? Is this a free market fable starring.

[Anand Narayanan]

A duck and a battery?

[Darian Woods]

Maybe called Friedrich Highquack?

[Anand Narayanan]

Darian? Someone get you a book deal? Well, the debate isn't settled. Critics argue that Texas shouldn't have been that close to a blackout in the first place that a little more central planning, like in California might have been helpful. What's more, batteries in Texas are agnostic about whether they're helping smooth out renewable or fossil fuel generators. More planning could ensure the batteries are specifically focused on helping wind and solar generators speeding up the energy transition to a low carbon grid.

[Darian Woods]

Whatever the case, the Texas system is encouraging companies to build a lot of grid scale batteries from basically nothing in 2020. By 2024, the state had enough batteries to power an entire small city for a day. In the battery race of California, Texas is coming second, but it is catching up fast.

[Anand Narayanan]

Sounds like the tortoise and the hare.

[Darian Woods]

Yeah. Which one's the tortoise and which one's the hare?

[Anand Narayanan]

Ooh. Stay tuned.

[Cooper Katz McKim]

There's a third episode of the Indicator series, all about what it takes to produce lithium batteries. You can find that at the link in our show notes. And if you want to hear about how this whole series came together, check out our next bonus episode for Planet Money plus supporters. We take you inside our reporting and share some fun stuff that we just couldn't fit into the series. To hear that and get sponsor free listening, sign up for NPR just go to plus.NPR.org and finally, if you haven't already, go follow the indicator from Planet Money in any podcast app. Five shows every week, always 10 minutes or less. These episodes of the Indicator were produced by me, Cooper Katz McKim and Corey Brittany. They were edited by Kate and Cannon and fact checked by Sierra Juarez. They were engineered by Jimmy Keeley and Neil Tevoldt. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer. I'm Cooper Katz McKim. This is NPR. Thanks for listening.

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