Stanton Battery Energy Storage

Stanton Battery Energy Storage (SBES) is a 68.8 MW / 275.2 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) located in Stanton, California.^[1] The facility uses lithium-ion battery cells manufactured by Samsung and was, at the time of its completion, the 15th-largest standalone battery operating within the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) market.^[2][3]

Stanton Battery Energy Storage (SBES)
The SBES power plant, located on two discontinuous parcels with the south parcel in the foreground and north parcel in the background. A portion of the separate Stanton Energy Reliability Center (SERC) 10MW BESS is visible on the right.
Country	United States
Location	Stanton, California
Coordinates	33°48′24.3864″N 117°59′15.4968″W
Status	In operation
Construction began	February, 2023
Commission date	July, 2023
Owners	W Power, LLC
Operators	Wellhead Electric Company, Inc.
Power generation
Storage capacity	68.8 MW / 275.2 MWh

The facility is operated by Wellhead Electric Company, a California-based Independent Power Producer (IPP).^[4] Wellhead also operates the physically adjacent Stanton Energy Reliability Center (SERC), a 98 MW natural gas-fired simple cycle power plant with accompanying 10 MW BESS.^[5][6] Stanton Battery Energy Storage was developed in part to allow for the phase-out of the natural gas portion of the existing SERC facility, which currently operates infrequently only as a peaker plant.^[7]

Development

Construction on Stanton Battery Energy Storage began in February, 2023 and lasted 5 months. The facility reached its commercial operation date (COD) in July, 2023.^[2] Energy Storage technology company Energy Vault provided the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) services and Energy Management System software for the project.^[8][2]

A $60 million investment tax credit (ITC) transfer for the project was completed by W Power, LLC, and Wellhead in November 2023. As a result, SBES was among the first projects to benefit from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 having expanded the ITC to include standalone energy storage.^[9]

An official ribbon-cutting ceremony was held for the facility on December 6, 2023.^[1]