by Steve Haner
A federal renewable energy laboratory’s public website on the cost of building utility battery storage indicates the cost now being paid by Virginia’s two major utilities is well above the average. Predicting future costs is always iffy, but the National Laboratory of the Rockies website does that, too.
In earlier posts, Bacon’s Rebellion reported (accurately) that Dominion Energy Virginia has applications pending at the State Corporation Commission to build battery storage at average costs of about $675,000 per megawatt-hour.
The federal data puts the 2026 cost of a four-hour battery system at $520,000 per megawatt hour, or $520 million* per gigawatt hour, with a slightly lower cost for 10-hour units. Reworking the numbers from the earlier post, the utilities would still need more than $50 billion to build all storage called for in House Bill 895 at today’s prices. Some numbers are detailed at the end.
The earlier post did spark a response from one of the advocates for the bill, which is a massive expansion on the utility battery mandate now included in the Virginia Clean Economy Act. He made the point that there are examples of battery projects costing far less than Dominion’s, and that the utility does not have a stellar record of keeping its costs in line with or below outside competition. Their bill also promotes competition, which is good.
