(IID demonstrates battery’s emergency black start capabilities)….It is believed to be a first for the energy industry.

The Imperial Irrigation District says they have successfully demonstrated the emergency black start capability of its state of the art battery energy storage system. Black start is the process of restoring an electrical power station, or a part of an electrical grid, to operation without relying on the external transmission network. On May 10th, the district’s new battery energy storage system successfully supplied the electricity needed to start IID’s 44 megawatt combined cycle natural gas turbine at the El Centro Generating Station. To stabilize the power plant, the battery energy storage system then converted, by design, to become an energy load consumer. District officials said this was a major accomplishment in the energy industry. The battery energy storage system went online in October 2016.