Application of an energy source power system stabilizer on the 10 MW battery energy storage system at Chino substation

Southern California Edison (SCE) installed a 10 MW battery energy storage system (BESS) at its Chino substation facility in 1988. The BESS facility has been in operation for six years and has been used for load leveling and peaking functions. The BESS power conversion system was built with the then state of the art technology and has a very fast response rate when changing power output of the batteries. SCE installed an energy source power system stabilizer (ESPSS) to test the concept of providing damping of power system swings using the ESPSS. The ESPSS basically modulates the power output/input of the energy storage batteries to respond to system frequency deviations caused by power system oscillations. The ESPSS differs from a conventional power system stabilizer. It is designed to change the power output of the power source rather than the voltage or the reactive power output. While installing the ESPSS several upgrades to the BESS were made to improve reliability. Installation of the ESPSS on the battery enables SCE to test the concept of system stabilization using power source output modulation instead of reactive power modulation. The energy storage batteries provide an easy test bed for conducting field tests and response of the ESPSS to system disturbances. This paper discusses the BESS, the ESPSS and presents recorded results from system disturbance monitoring and field tests conducted on the ESPSS and the batteries