IEC prepared several feasibility studies to install battery energy storage (BES) systems for the U.S. Army Corps at their Fort Hunter Liggett and Camp Parks facilities in California.

As the Army Corps’ facilitator, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) was responsible to hire a battery storage expert to complete the study. Through a solicitation process, PG&E called upon the expertise of IEC to provide engineering services. The study involved selecting BES equipment, preparing preliminary design drawings, and providing an engineer’s cost estimate for four (4) sites which included various system configurations at each site.  The BES system sizes evaluated were 3MW/6MWh; 2MW/4MWh; 500kW/1MWh; 250kW/500kWh.

Two sites had existing solar photovoltaic (PV) systems that the Army Corps wanted to integrate with the BES. IEC engineered AC-coupled and DC-coupled configuration options for connecting the existing PV systems to new BES systems. For each configuration involving solar, a life cycle cost savings evaluation was prepared using facility electric rates, PV system generation, and BES storage capacity.

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