Electrical Consultants, Inc. (formerly Relay Application Innovation, Inc.) provided technical support for the interconnection, protection, control, and integration requirements of this fast-paced Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project. Due to a natural gas facility failure, California was predicting a power shortage during peak load conditions. CAISO identified the need for a rapid deployment generation facility.
The Escondido and El Cajon BESS systems were designed and built to solve the problem. Two locations were installed in and connected to the SDG&E electric system at 12kV. Escondido has three interconnections of 40MW hours each, and El Cajon has a single interconnection of 30MW hours. This project is the w
ECI’s scope of work on this project involved the development of the BESS’ protection and integration scheme. This involved close collaboration with SDG&E Engineering and field testing. The integration system connected SDG&E, the BESS power equipment, and the control system together to provide a complete monitoring system. Commissioning was coordinated with the construction so that modular systems could be tested while new ones were being installed, shortening the time necessary to start operation.