Jointly organised by Messe Düsseldorf North America and Strategen Consulting, ESNA 2013 is the first energy storage conference and exposition in the US to focus exclusively on projects, applications, and deals.
Over 740 attendees from 16 countries, representing 400 organisations, joined the event to find out about successful projects and applications, share best practices and accelerate energy storage market development; while some 43 exhibitors demonstrated technologies and applications for North America’s grid infrastructure.
Some of the highlights included:
- An all-electric MINI Cooper performing vehicle-to-grid frequency regulation on the expo floor presented by EV Grid;
- A full size ice thermal storage system presented by FAFCO;
- An awards ceremony celebrating the most innovative North American energy storage projects in three categories: utility-scale, customer sited/behind the meter, and mobility;
- A learning lounge featuring 9 companies working on energy storage deployment, including the announcement of a new 60MWh flow battery under construction in Hokkaido, Japan by Sumitomo Electric.
Energy Storage North America 2013 coincided with the release of a California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) proposed decision that could bring 1.325GW of new energy storage resources to California load serving entities, pursuant to Bill AB 2514. AB 2514 requires the CPUC to establish appropriate energy storage procurement targets for 2015 and 2020, if cost-effective and commercially viable, by October 2013.
CPUC Commissioner Carla Peterman, who authored the proposed decision ordering the procurement targets, delivered the keynote talk at ENSA on 11 September.
Later that morning, Commissioner Michel Florio announced that Southern California Edison’s awaited local capacity requirement (LCR) request for offers (RFO) for a minimum of 50MW of energy storage and up to 650 MW of energy storage and other preferred resources to be procured in the LA basin was expected to be released after that day.
“Commissioner Peterman’s historic proposed decision and Commissioner Florio’s decision to require storage in LA provides a critically-needed market signal to realise the many benefits energy storage can bring to California’s ratepayers,” said Janice Lin, managing partner of Strategen Consulting and Chair of Energy Storage North America (ESNA) Conference and Expo 2013. “We’re certain that other States will follow California’s example.”
Energy Storage North America is officially part of the World of Energy Storage event group, including Energy Storage India to be held from 4–6 December 2013 in Mumbai/India, Energy Storage Europe held from 25–27 March, 2014 in Düsseldorf/Germany, and Energy Storage China held from 23–24 June 2014 in Beijing/China.
The next Energy Storage North America is scheduled to be held from 30 September–2 October 2014.