ComEd adds community BESS to US brewery-owned solar project

ComEd, a subsidiary of utilities giant Exelon, has partnered with the United States’ Department of Energy (DOE) to commission a new BESS in Rockford, Illinois.

The BESS is paired with an existing customer-owned solar project, located at a brewing company in Rockford as part of a pilot by ComEd. The BESS has a capacity of 250 kW, ComEd told ESS News.

The utility is adding the BESS as part of a pilot project to research the viability of distributed energy resource management systems to support the integration of private solar panel deployments to grid-connected BESS. The BESS will be located half a mile from the brewery to store power generated from the panels and connect the energy with the Rockford community’s grid.

The insights gained from the pilot will be used to inform similar projects in the northern Illinois area to strengthen grid resiliency.

Funding for the pilot comes from a DOE grant of $3.2 million, with ComEd and its partners providing $3.3 million. The DOE funding was allocated as part of the Enabling Extreme Real-Time Grid Integration of Solar Energy (Energise) program. The funding was awarded in 2021 by the DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Office. The project in Rockford is one of 12 similar projects across the United States through the Energise program, a $30 million scheme first announced in 2017.

The pilot will test various renewable smoothing techniques to help ensure the power output of the solar generation is available throughout the day, and not just when the sun is shining

ComEd’s President and CEO, Gil C. Quiniones, described his company’s involvement in the pilot as a step towards a more resilient and reliable electricity grid.

“Exploratory pilot projects like this one are crucial to ensuring the grid is fully prepared to support large-scale solar and battery energy storage solutions that are key to the clean energy future in northern Illinois,” he added.

To date, ComEd has interconnected more than 1 GW of distributed energy resource capacity on the grid, including almost 60,000 residential rooftop solar systems, more than 1,500 commercial solar systems, and 150 community solar projects.

The utility has long worked with stakeholders in the Rockford region to make its energy system more stable. Rockford was the recipient of a $50 million DOE grant to boost its grid. The Rockford Mayor, Thomas P. McNamara said he was excited to work with ComEd to improve its grid and energy storage, adding “We are seeing solar deployments grow in Rockford and the surrounding county, and we are excited to collaborate with ComEd to maximize the power of solar deployments in our community to further support our clean energy future.”