A massive Tesla battery energy storage system with a capacity of 100 megawatts is being proposed in Ripon immediately west of the Flying J Truck Plaza.
It is planned for a 4.9 acre triangle parcel bordered on the north by Santos Avenue, on the east by Frontage Road along with Highway 99, and Flying J.
A PG&E substation is located in the southern part of the property.
The Tesla mega battery packs will be placed in 11 rows. Eight of those rows will go the width of the property with eight feet between rows. The longest row will approach 600 feet in length.
Three shorter rows of battery packs will be place east of the substation.
The BayWa r.e Enable Energy project will come before the Ripon Planning Commission on Monday when they weigh in on the request for a conditional use permit.
The 6 p.m. session will take place inside the Council Chambers located at 259 N. Wilma Ave. Occupancy will be limited to the first 25 people due to the COVID-19 protocols.
According to Planning Director Ken Zuidervaart, the Battery Energy Storage System project, if approved, would enhance transmission grid reliability and further California's goal of decarbonizing the energy sector.
"The project would consist of battery storage cabinets, transformers, inverters, a main step-up transformer and an interconnection line to the PG&E Substation," he said in his report.
The energy storage system would be comprised of Tesla Megapacks— or similar devices —housed in cabinet enclosures located on equipment pads that link together between inverter/transformer pads. Each enclosure would include steel cabinets that hold arrays of lithium-ion batteries.
The battery storage packs would be charged by alternating current (AC) energy from PG&E’s grid, when the supply of energy exceeds the demand. When energy demand exceeds the supply, the storage system would then feed energy back into PG&E’s grid. This transfer of energy would occur via a main step-up transformer, which will be installed on-site, including electrical protection equipment such as circuit breakers, switches, etc.. All the battery cabinets will be connected to the step-up transformer.
The battery storage operation will be inspected on a regular basis and will be monitored by a supervisory control and data acquisition system, which has the ability for remote system control. Additionally, there will be a local service technician on-site regularly throughout the workweek. The facility will also be enclosed by a 6- to 7-foot-tall commercial quality ornamental security fence around the entire perimeter of the site. Additionally, the Police Department has requested the installation of a city security video camera for the site.
Both the Police Chief and Fire Chief participated in a Zoom meeting with the applicant where a video was shared pertaining to battery failures within battery cabinets. From a public safety standpoint, both were comfortable with the potential impacts of such an event.
The project will include vehicle impact protection along Highway 99, which could include above ground detention basins with dense vegetation such as oleanders and possibly boulders. The vehicle impact protection features will be installed along the south side of the project site to protect the project from potential vehicle collisions from Frontage Road and Highway, all as approved by our local Police and Fire Departments.
For more information, click on to www.cityofripon.org.
