Strata signs tolling agreement for Arizona battery, Energy Vault takes FID on Texas project

North Carolina-based renewables developer Strata Clean Energy has secured a 20-year tolling agreement which will see utility Arizona Public Service (APS) charge and discharge electricity from a Strata 100 MW/400 MWh BESS near Avondale, in Maricopa County, Arizona.

The White Tank Energy Storage project, awarded a contract under APS’ call for 700 MW of clean energy resources in June 2023, is expected to be complete by April 2027.

Announcing the tolling agreement on Nov. 12, 2024, Strata said it had a 7 GWh energy storage pipeline in Arizona, of which 1.6 GWh is under construction as part of a wider 22 GWh under-development storage pipeline.

Energy Vault

In Texas, developer Energy Vault has revealed plans for a 57 MW/114 MWh lithium-ion BESS in Scurry County.

That project will provide grid-strengthening ancillary services as well as storage capacity to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid from the Cross Trails BESS which is set to begin construction before April 2025 and aims to be operational before September 2025.

Energy Vault has hedged its energy market revenue for the project by signing a 10-year offtake agreement with artificial intelligence-powered energy marketer Gridmatic, with that deal set to begin in the second quarter of 2025.

Gridmatic will provide Energy Vault, which will own the BESS, with day-ahead ERCOT market forecasts and will enable the developer to bid to buy and sell electricity on that market.

Announcing the BESS and Gridmatic deal on Nov. 8, 2024, Energy Vault said its portfolio of projects featuring its BVault lithium-ion BESS – which offer battery and inverter supply and alternating- and direct-current coupled configurations – extended to more than 2 GWh of storage capacity which is either operational or under construction.

Gridmatic is contracted to operate more than 300 MW of BESS in the ERCOT and California Independent System Operator grids.