San Antonio Municipal Utility company CPS Energy has invited bids to purchase power from 500 MW of standalone energy storage systems in the United States.

Existing as well as upcoming projects are eligible to bid.

The last day to submit the bids is October 18, 2023.

Bidders must post and maintain a security amount equal to $40,000 per MW of contract storage capacity within ten days of receiving the work order but in any event before commencing the facility’s construction.

Storage systems can be either transmission scale storage or distribution scale storage. The potential duration of the power purchase agreement can extend up to 25 years.

The system size should not exceed 50 MW for transmission scale storage, whereas distribution scale storage should range from 5 MW to 9.95 MW per substation, with an aggregate capacity of up to 10 MWac per substation.

Transmission scale storage systems must offer energy storage capabilities of up to 4 hours or more than 8 hours, while distribution scale storage systems should provide up to 4 hours of energy storage. Both systems must complete at least one energy storage cycle per day.

Transmission scale storage systems will be connected to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid, while distribution scale storage systems can be linked to either the 13 kV or 35 kV CPS Energy distribution grid.

Tier 1 components are required for this storage resource and must be chargeable from the grid by CPS Energy.

The resource should be deliverable to specific nodes such as resource nodes, hub nodes, distribution generation resource nodes, settlement-only distribution generator nodes, and load zone CPS.

Bidders must provide detailed financial information for the most recent three fiscal years. If the project is or will be owned by an entity at the project level other than the bidder, the financial statements of the majority parent company (with over 50% ownership) for the most recent three fiscal years must be submitted.

If the project is owned by an entity other than the bidder, this entity will serve as the counterparty to the service contract agreement. The proposals should include an organizational chart illustrating the corporate relationship between the entity and the bidder, outlining the ownership structure and ownership percentages of the bidder.

The energy storage market in the U.S., including grid-scale, residential and community, commercial, and industrial segments, experienced an 80% year-over-year growth in the second quarter of 2023, adding a total of 5,597 MWh. The report revealed that the grid-scale energy storage segment was pivotal in driving this growth with 5,109 MWh, an impressive 172% quarter-over-quarter expansion.

A U.S. Energy Information Administration report suggests that power developers and project owners could add utility-scale battery storage capacity of up to 30 GW in the U.S. over the next three years.