Energy Storage

Strata Clean Energy signs APS to 20-year Tolling agreement for 1-GWh Phoenix Battery Storage

May 31, 2023

The deal with Strata is part of Arizona Public Service's long-known transition toward more than 1 GW of complementary and connected solar and battery storage to decarbonize its generation portfolio

Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor

The largest electric utility in Arizona is building a long-term relationship with a U.S.-based battery energy storage provider as part of its gigawatt-level and multi-decade commitment to renewables and storage capacity.

Arizona Public Service and Strata Clean Energy announced a 20-year tolling agreement built around the 255-MW/1-GWh Scatter Wash battery storage complex in Phoenix. The deal with Strata is part of APS’ long-known move toward more than 1 GW of complementary and connected solar and battery storage to decarbonize its generation portfolio.

Dispatchable battery energy storage is needed to aid in smoothing out dips in solar capacity such as the long known “duck curve” in which morning and evening electricity demand is high, but solar generation is relatively low compared to mid-day hours, when customers are at school or work.

“We believe that APS will continue to be a leader in battery energy storage and that our experienced Scottsdale-based team is well positioned to help move the state towards achieving its clean-energy objectives with projects like Scatter Wash. We have a large pipeline of additional clean energy projects in the Western United States and world-class execution capabilities,” said Josh Rogol, President of Strata Clean Energy, which is headquartered in North Carolina.

Strata will build, own, and operate the Scatter Wash battery storage complex for the life of the project as part of the firm’s growing portfolio of clean-energy assets. In 2022, Strata acquired Arizona-based Crossover Energy Partners and is currently hiring for additional local positions in its Scottsdale office.

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APS has vowed to reach 100 percent carbon-free energy by 2050. In 2021, Strata and APS announced the former’s plan to build a $450 million project to bolster the utility’s grid and be operational sometime in 2024.

Strata has developed, built and operated more than 170 utility-scale projects, tied to 7 GW of solar photovoltaic with some 4.2-GW of battery storage under management and 28-GWh in development across the U.S.

A tolling agreement is a type of long-term power purchase deal between utility and renewable or storage asset provider. The developer takes on responsibility for permitting, controls, interconnection rights, construction and commissioning, while the offtaker pays for the energy generated.

Sometimes, a utility acquires the projects sited and built by Strata and other developers. In April, Virginia-based Dominion Energy closed on acquisition of the Cerulean Solar project developed by Strata.

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(Rod Walton, senior editor for EnergyTech, is a 15-year veteran of covering the energy industry both as a newspaper and trade journalist. He can be reached at [email protected]).

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About the Author

Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor | Senior Editor

For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

Rod Walton has spent 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World.

EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023

Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.