Technology group Wärtsilä will supply a 15-MW)/ 30-MWh energy storage system to Tampa Electric Company (TECO), which will be co-located with a 25 MW solar plant in Dover, Florida. The project will ensure grid reliability as the utility scales up its portfolio of solar energy. The order was booked to Wärtsilä’s order intake in March 2023.

Courtesy of Wärtsilä

This will be TECO’s second utility-scale energy storage facility. As the top producer of solar energy per customer in Florida, energy storage will enable TECO to fill in periods of intermittency and provide control over when energy can be discharged to the grid. The Wärtsilä facility will provide critical grid services including resource adequacy, frequency support, and solar shifting.

"Wärtsilä is proud to work with Tampa Electric Company to provide flexible utility-scale solutions designed to enable more sustainable energy production and management," said Andrew Tang, Vice President, Wärtsilä Energy Storage & Optimisation. "Energy storage allows our customers to optimise renewable energy for a safer and more resilient grid and we're eager to see this system come to life in 2024."

The GEMS Digital Energy Platform, Wärtsilä’s sophisticated energy management system, will control the dispatch of the energy storage system. Wärtsilä’s Storage+ solution empowers users to get the most out of grid-scale energy storage systems with a rich library of operation logics, integration with connected hardware such as safety equipment and renewable energy generation assets, and advanced asset monitoring capabilities.

The facility will include Wärtsilä’s GridSolv Quantum, a fully integrated, modular, and compact energy storage system. GridSolv Quantum offers the lowest lifecycle costs, fastest deployment times, highest quality control, and maximum flexibility. It is certified UL 9540 and UL 9540A compliant and fitted with advanced safety features.

The project is expected to become operational by fall 2024.