Get up to speed on our battery storage offer

Incentives are big, but customers will need expert advice

Paul Seo has three key messages for Alliance members looking for answers around our energy storage system offer that launched last summer:

Get on board, get educated about the offer, and don't hesitate to talk to us.

Knock on your customers' doors and let them know about the offer. With incentives of up to 80% (and up to 90% in non-wired areas), this is a juicy incentive.

"I think we're pretty much leaders on this in the demand-side management world," says Seo, senior program manager with BC Hydro. "So we're breaking new ground on battery storage for businesses. Please reach out to us so we can sit down and talk, and if we need another webinar, let's do it."

Seo says more than 60 people attended a webinar in the fall that covered the offer. Questions ranged from the basics of the offer, eligibility, and how to calculate incentives. We'll tackle some of those questions here, but again, reach out to talk directly to BC Hydro.

The basics of our energy storage system offer

We're offering business incentives to support the purchase, installation, and operation of energy storage systems (ESS). Once installed, BC Hydro will have the ability to dispatch the ESS automatically in response to changing conditions on the grid. These dispatch signals trigger the battery to discharge, powering the facility it's attached to and reducing demand on the grid. The battery will then recharge later in the day or at night.

The payoff is reliability and resiliency for businesses and the grid, and as an alternative to diesel backup generation, the initiative will also help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Storing energy can also help manage peak demand charges, reduce peak loads on the grid and provide electricity during outages.

A few things customers need to know

The incentive provided is based on the amount of battery capacity the customer nominates to be available for demand flexibility or demand response events. Incentives are calculated on the nominated kilowatts, nominated kilowatt-hours, or 80% of eligible project costs. Customers may also receive study funding through our Feasibility Study offer.

Under the ESS agreement, customers have 24 months to install, energize, and meet all system requirements. During this period, BC Hydro will pay out the incentives in three installments: when customers take ownership of the battery, when they energize the battery, and upon confirmation that it's connected to our distributed energy resource management system (DERMS).

A new term (it's DERMS) and why it matters

The distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) is a communication device, provided through a third-party vendor, that's installed at the battery storage facility to allow for BC Hydro to switch the site to battery power for up to four consecutive hours. Through the DERMS, we can also delay recharging from the grid by up to 12 hours, can pre-charge up to 12 hours before a discharge commands, and can also schedule re-charging based on a customer request.

"A lot of customers and vendors, including battery vendors, have no idea what DERMS is," says SEO. "They're just trying to understand how to get DERMs into the system to offer it as a solution to the customer."

We have a customer manual online with a dedicated a section on DERMS that covers the requirements and process for integration.

A real-life project example

Seo says his team has been a bit surprised at the makeup of customer projects so far, with two thirds coming from small to medium-sized businesses and only a third from larger customers managed by a key account manager.

One large commercial customer commissioned a study based on load management challenges caused by the addition of six electric trucks at a site. A feasibility study centred on battery storage to avoid the costs of a service upgrade proved to be a learning experience, with all involved playing catch-up on the new technologies involved.

"We all discovered some interesting things that we had never thought about," he says. "That's why we're working closely with the Alliance group, to build up some expertise."

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