Texas-based Vistra has announced that it is enlarging the size of its battery energy storage project in northern California., Kallanish Energy reports

The battery will now have the capacity of 36.25 megawatt/145 megawatt-hours instead of the previously announced capacity of 20 megawatts/80 megawatt-hours.

The project, located in Oakland, California, at Vistra’s Oakland Power Plant, is expected to begin commercial operations by January 2022.

The enlarged project relying on lithium-ion batteries has been approved by East Bay Community Energy and Pacific Gas & Electric. Approval by the California Public Utilities Commission is pending.

The battery system will be a partial replacement for the aging 165-megawatt power plant in Oakland that is fueled by jet fuel.

Vistra plans to retire the existing units and develop additional energy storage projects on the site in the future.

The company is leader in utility-scale battery storage. It has developed the 10-megawatt/42 megawatt-hour Upton Battery Storage Facility, the largest in Texas, and its 300 megawatt/1,200 megawatt-hours Moss Landing facility is under construction in California. It will be the largest facility of its kind in the world when completed.

This post appeared first on Kallanish Energy News.