Batteries Gaining Favor Over Gas Peaker Plants in California
- Batteries displace `need to burn incremental natural gas'
- Edison International utility signed 280 megawatts of storage
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Southern California Edison is embracing energy-storage technology over the natural gas-fired peaker plants that utilities have traditionally relied upon to meet sudden shortfalls in electricity.
“If the requirement is just, ‘Hey we’re just short energy or capacity,’ then yes, energy storage is going to be the solution before probably a peaker,” Colin Cushnie, vice president of energy procurement and management, said in an interview at the utility’s office in Rosemead, California. “We don’t want to put peakers on the grid if cleaner-cost options are available.”