3D rendering of battery energy storage systems.
Wedoany.com Report-Feb 4, IPP Enfinity Global has announced two battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in Texas, US, with a total capacity of 425MW/850MWh.
Construction for the projects is expected to start in Q2 and Q4 of 2025. The projects will be located near the Texas cities of Houston and Dallas.
Enfinity is a US-based company but has solar and storage projects across the US, Italy, India and Japan. The company says it owns a 32.1GW portfolio of renewable energy and storage projects and has an additional 37GW under negotiation across the US.
Ricardo Díaz, CEO of Enfinity Global Americas said of the announced BESS projects:
“Enfinity’s proven capabilities with in-house greenfield development has allowed us to expand into executing stand-alone BESS projects. This positions us to play a key role in strengthening and balancing ERCOT power grids and create value-accretive investment opportunities for Enfinity and our financial partners.”
Facing growing load demands, Texas continues to be an active market for BESS projects, driven by the ERCOT wholesale market’s unique structure, which enables merchant opportunities for storage developers. The state accounted for 25% of a total 3,431MW/9,188MWh US grid-scale battery storage deployments recorded in Q3 2024, according to market research firm Wood Mackenzie’s most recent US Energy Storage Monitor Report.
A trend in the ERCOT market, as discussed in a July 2024 conversation with Energy-Storage.news and Modo Energy(Premium access article), is that revenues are becoming concentrated into a fewer number of days. This leads to an increase in volatility, where prices are either incredibly high or incredibly low.
Writing for Energy-Storage.news, Ali Karimian and Alden Phinney of AI-powered energy services provider GridBeyond recently elaborated on GridBeyond’s white paper exploring market trends in ERCOT and CAISO:
“Texas’ burgeoning population as well as growth in data centres, cryptocurrency mines, and AI server farms are driving baseline demand upward, adding pressure to supply margins, while coal plant retirements act to reduce availability of baseload generation and heightens reliance on natural gas and renewables, leading to increased operational costs and higher price volatility.”
“The interplay between these factors emphasises the need for sophisticated market strategies to navigate competing pressures. Advanced bid optimisation strategies, backed by robust algorithms tailored to market conditions, are pivotal in determining outcomes.”
Recently, Lithium-metal battery developer SES AI Corporation signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) with retail energy provider AISPEX to provide up to 100MWh of battery energy storage systems (BESS) at a crypto mining site in Texas.