LS Power Group's planned 316-MW battery storage project at its oil- and natural gas-fired Ravenswood power station in Long Island City, Queens, N.Y., could be delayed by more than three years.
Originally scheduled to start operations next month as the largest such facility in the state, the project, with up to eight hours of lithium-ion energy storage capacity charged from the grid, is viewed by state regulators as a key asset for reducing emissions during periods of peak power demand. But the first 129-MW phase of the Ravenswood facility now may not start up until June 2024 after the New York State Public Service Commission in late January approved the developer's request to delay the project.
An attorney for LS Power affiliate Ravenswood Development LLC said the project has not started construction and blamed its delay on a lack of "financeable revenue or offtake agreement" to support an acceptable return on capital. The developer had hoped Consolidated Edison Inc. would select the system under its initial energy storage request for proposals but was "ultimately not successful," attorney Michael Murphy said in a letter to the commission.
Construction, therefore, "needs to be deferred until sufficient financial support is available for the investment," Murphy added. LS Power is eyeing Consolidated Edison's next request for proposals, expected in the second quarter of 2021, according to the letter. Construction on the second and third phases of the projects will also depend on developing "governmental rules" and incentives, it said.
New York has a target to deploy 1,500 MW of new energy storage resources by 2025 and 3,000 MW by 2030, but the state had less than 100 MW of non-hydroelectric energy storage capacity online to start 2021. State regulators recently acknowledged the need to jumpstart New York's energy storage market in approving a series of utility tariff revisions in January.
LS Power has had success developing energy storage projects elsewhere. It completed its 250-MW Gateway Energy Storage Project in Southern California in 2020 and started construction on its 200-MW Diablo Energy Storage Project in Contra Costa County, east of San Francisco.