Broad Reach's 200MW Battery Storage Plants Now Online in Texas

Broad Reach Power LLC, an independent power producer based in Houston which owns a 21-gigawatt (GW) portfolio of utility-scale wind, solar and energy storage power projects across the United States, has announced that its first two transmission-level projects, North Fork and Bat Cave, are online and placed in service with Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

Each project is a 100-megawatt (MW)/100-megawatt-hour (MWh) greenfield battery storage resource located in Central Texas. Broad Reach now has 300 MW of dispatchable storage resources in ERCOT, improving the reliability of the ERCOT system.

“The demand for new power generation in Texas, including wind and solar generation, is accelerating. Battery storage is a critical component in supplying affordable, clean power, while also enhancing Texas grid reliability. Bringing these two projects into service advances Broad Reach’s commitment to developing key energy infrastructure in Texas,” said Broad Reach Power Managing Partner & Chief Executive Officer Steve Vavrik.

Last fall, the company announced its plan to invest more than $100 million in the North Fork and Bat Cave projects. Located in Mason and Williamson Counties in Texas, the sites operate alongside Broad Reach’s expanding portfolio of utility-scale battery storage plants across Texas.

In September this year, Broad Reach announced that it had invested in a 118-megawatt-hour (MWh) energy storage equipment from SYL Battery to support the Cascade Energy Storage project in Stockton, California.

Cascade is a 25-Megawatt (MW)/100-Megawatt-hour (MWh) front-of-the-meter project and is expected to achieve commercial operation by the summer of 2022 to help mitigate capacity shortfalls in California. Cascade was selected by Pacific Gas & Electric to provide resource adequacy under a 20-year agreement signed in 2017. Broad Reach acquired the project in late 2020.

Broad Reach is backed by energy investors EnCap Investments L.P., Yorktown Partners and Mercuria Energy. The company owns a significant portfolio of utility-scale solar and energy storage power projects in Montana, California, Wyoming, Utah and Texas which give utilities, generators and customers access to technological insight and tools for managing merchant power risk so they can better match supply and demand.