Thursday, 9 July 2026

WOOD & Company and Delta Capacity completed a battery energy storage system that Centrica Energy will run as the project's trading and dispatch optimizer, providing round-the-clock services, according to the companies cited by ESS News.

The two-hour duration system was acquired as a ready-to-build asset from RES in February 2025, according to ESS News. Sungrow supplied the battery system, with Stenger & Ibsen Construction serving as balance-of-plant contractor and Rejlers providing construction management support.

Centrica Energy will handle trading and dispatch optimization for the project, providing round-the-clock services, according to the companies.

Delta Capacity, founded in 2022 and based in Switzerland, has nearly 800 MWh of storage under construction, according to ESS News. The company is targeting more than 6 GWh of flexible assets in operation by 2030.

WOOD & Company Renewables Sub-Fund has a net asset value of EUR 76 million, or USD 86.3 million, according to ESS News.

NatPower and Tesla have signed a multi-year supply and execution agreement to add more than 25 GWh of battery energy storage systems in Italy and the United Kingdom, according to Rigzone.

The facilities will be owned and operated by Luxembourg-registered NatPower, Rigzone reported.

Under the agreement, Tesla will supply its Megapack battery energy storage system, along with engineering, procurement and construction services and bankable trading services carrying long-term revenue warranties through Tesla's Autobidder platform.

NatPower estimated aggregate construction value across the full scope at USD 4 billion to USD 5 billion, with expected project revenues exceeding USD 15 billion over 20 years.

NatPower said the deployed assets will provide grid stabilization, renewable generation optimization, and dispatchable capacity for high-demand end users including data centers and energy-intensive industrial operations.

"Tesla is excited to partner with NatPower on this long-term agreement," said Mike Snyder, Tesla vice president for energy and charging.

Sunrun stock climbed as much as 26% on Wednesday after the residential solar company unveiled a virtual power plant partnership targeting data center demand, according to Electrek.

Aggregated home batteries and thermostats already give the venture more than 300 megawatts available for immediate use in Virginia, with the participants forecasting at least 500 MW by 2030, Electrek reported.

The timing tracks a steep demand curve. Electrek reported US data center power needs are projected to reach 41 GW in 2026 and 66 GW in 2027, with interconnection queues running years long.

The companies cite a Brattle Group analysis estimating that fuller use of the existing grid could trim US electricity bills by USD 110 billion to USD 170 billion over the next decade and shorten data center interconnection by several years, according to Electrek.

Renew Home, a Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners company that counts more than 6 million connected households, said it brought the group together, Electrek reported.

Sunrun chief executive Mary Powell tied the pitch to grid age, saying "the grid of the 1800s cannot power the innovation of 2026".

Red Eléctrica has begun construction of a new 200 kV Costa de la Luz-Puebla de Guzmán electrical axis in the province of Huelva, according to the Redeia subsidiary responsible for transmission and operation of the Spanish electricity system.

The line runs through the municipalities of Lepe, Cartaya, Villanueva de los Castillejos, El Almendro and Puebla de Guzmán, all in Huelva province, according to Red Eléctrica. A 0.9-kilometre section at the Costa de la Luz substation end will run underground.

The works include two new bays at the 220 kV Puebla de Guzmán substation, corresponding to Costa de la Luz 1 and 2, according to Red Eléctrica. The project also expands the 220 kV Costa de la Luz substation using a smaller gas insulated substation (GIS) enclosed within a building for better integration into the surroundings.

The axis is intended to drive mining and industrial developments in the Iberian Pyrite Belt in the El Andévalo region, in the north of Huelva province, according to Red Eléctrica. The company said it will also reinforce electricity supply for new business and residential projects on the Huelva coast.

PJM will open its annual capacity auction on June 30 for the delivery year beginning June 2028, according to PJM Inside Lines. The offer window closes July 7, with results posted after 4 p.m. on July 14.

Prices in the auction are capped at approximately $325/MW-day, with a floor of $175/MW-day, according to PJM. PJM said it implemented the price cap and floor for the previous two auctions in coordination with the governors of all 13 PJM states, then extended those parameters to this auction and the next one in December 2026 to help limit volatility for consumers and investors.

The parameters follow a supply gap in the most recent auction. In the December 2025 auction for the 2027/2028 delivery year, procured capacity fell 6.6 GW short of PJM's reliability requirement, according to PJM.

To address the anticipated shortfall for the 2028/2029 delivery year, PJM has proposed a backstop central procurement process, similar to an auction, to be conducted in September and October.

PJM has also opened a separate contracting route. On June 9, PJM began facilitating new bilateral, long-term agreements between large load customers and generation providers, often spanning 10 years or more, letting buyers secure supply from new generation, storage or demand-side resources.

PJM ties the supply pressure to demand from data centers. New data center facilities and expansions can be developed up to two to three times faster than many of the electricity generation technologies necessary to serve them, according to PJM.

Avangrid has announced plans to build a 41 MW / 82 MWh battery storage project called Shutler Energy Storage in Gilliam County, Oregon, according to Solar Builder.

The battery will be able to discharge 41 MW for two hours, officials told Solar Builder, enough to power about 3,000 average American homes in a single discharge. Avangrid representatives said the project is likely to come online sometime in 2027.

Solar Builder reported that construction will create about 35 local union jobs in the northern region of Oregon. The project will add to Avangrid's existing 3 GW footprint in the Pacific Northwest.

Alongside the project, Avangrid pledged to donate $110,000 every year to two Gilliam County nonprofits, split evenly with $55,000 each going to the Condon Early Learning Center and the Arlington Childcare Center, until the project is decommissioned, according to Solar Builder.

Avangrid currently operates more than 11 GW of renewable energy capacity across nearly 100 projects, Solar Builder reported.

France's energy regulator CRE is seeking bids for as much as 30 MW of battery storage in French Guiana, ESS News reported. Bids must arrive by June 15, 2027.

Each battery must run for two hours, and CRE has set 30 MW as the ceiling for the round. Bids will be ordered by their cost per unit of service, with awards continuing until the ceiling fills.

The scheme rewards several grid functions, among them energy arbitrage, primary frequency reserve, and inertia from spinning machines, according to ESS News. Synthetic inertia delivered by power electronics is shut out.

Batteries sited near the Cayenne network and running primary reserve could loosen local operating limits and cut how much the grid leans on the Larivot thermal plant, CRE said.

CRE has left pumped hydro out of this round, pointing to the lack of any deployment target for the technology in France's draft 2024-2033 multiannual energy plan ahead of the bid cutoff, according to ESS News.

The regulator intends to set out terms for a further storage round covering Mayotte in the first half of 2027.

Four out of five residential solar systems installed in Italy last year came paired with storage, according to Federico Brucciani, secretary of Italia Solare. He said 80% of residential photovoltaic (PV) systems were installed with storage in 2025.

The residential storage market is driven by the eco-bonus, an income tax rebate under the IRPEF regime, according to Brucciani.

Brucciani said Italy has built a distributed storage base estimated at around 18 GW of installed capacity.

The commercial and industrial (C&I) segment tells a different story. Brucciani said around 300 MW per year are being installed in that segment, but with continuous stop-and-go dynamics. He stated that C&I in Italy does not yet have a real storage market.

Large batteries in Italy are managed by grid operator Terna, according to Brucciani.

Brucciani projected that by 2030 Italy will be close to 50 GWh of standalone storage.

Neoen won a 20-year deal with the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) in Ontario, committing 190 MW of eight-hour capacity from a planned battery storage project, ESS News reported.

The procurement ran through the IESO's Long-Term 2 Capacity Services tender. Neoen's winning project pairs a 200 MW power rating with 1,600 MWh of energy, according to ESS News.

Site plans place the battery roughly 15 km west of Dryden in northwestern Ontario, ESS News reported. Crews are set to break ground in 2028, and the facility should reach commercial operation in 2030.

Ownership will be split between Neoen and Eagle Lake First Nation, an Ojibwe Indigenous community, according to ESS News.

With this award counted in, Neoen's secured Ontario capacity reaches 918 MW, lifting its Canadian total to 1,168 MW, ESS News reported.

Financial bids in Argentina's AlmaSADI battery storage auction landed between $7,397/MW-month and a level just under the $12,500/MW-month price cap, pv magazine reported.

Qualified projects produced a weighted average bid of $10,568.4/MW-month, about 15.5% below the auction ceiling, according to pv magazine.

Bidding opened after 37 domestic and international companies cleared qualification with 232 proposals totaling 8,230 MW of proposed capacity, well beyond the 700 MW procurement target, pv magazine reported.

Argentina's Energy Secretariat estimated the procurement could support around $700 million in investment, according to pv magazine.

The tender, launched in March, targets battery facilities able to deliver at least four consecutive hours of discharge for capacity and operating reserve services in the wholesale electricity market, pv magazine reported.

A low bid does not guarantee selection, according to pv magazine. Market operator CAMMESA will weigh offers against bid prices, regional and nodal capacity limits, and the allocation rules written into the tender.