Regenesys
Electricity is a tricky commodity. Unlike soybeans or corn, it can’t be stored for later use. But a new TVA project could change all that.
This past October TVA began building the nation’s first large-scale, flow-battery power storage facility in Columbus, Mississippi. The plant will use the Regenesys technology to store electricity during off-peak periods and retrieve it for use when the need for power increases. Located east of Columbia Air Force Base, the facility is being designed to store up to 120 megawatt-hours of energy. Once fully charged, it will be capable of providing power to some 7,500 homes for 10 hours or more.
The Regenesys plant will be similar to the Raccoon Mountain Pumped Storage Plant in its ability to store power. However, the Regenesys chemical process is very different from that used at Raccoon Mountain, which pumps water from the Tennessee River up to a mountaintop lake when power demand is low, then releases the water through turbines at times of high power demand.
During periods of low demand for electricity, a reversible electrochemical reaction between two salt solutions charges the Regenesys system, using power generated at other plants. The process reverses itself to transmit the stored energy when demand for power rises.
“This innovative energy-storage plant is designed to improve power reliability and customer service, have limited environmental impact, and contribute to economic growth for consumers in Mississippi and throughout the Tennessee Valley,” says TVA Chairman Glenn McCullough, Jr. “The project is another way in which TVA continues to set the pace for energy production and demonstrate its role as a national leader in the use of cutting-edge, 21st-century technologies.”
To help meet the growing demand for electricity, TVA’s Public Power Institute has been working with the British company Regenesys Technologies to introduce the new power storage system in the U.S. The project, approved by the TVA Board in November 2000, will cost in excess of $25 million and will create about 60 jobs during construction, which will last about two years. Construction began in October 2001.
The Regenesys plant is one of a number of Public Power Institute projects that are designed to improve the TVA power system by increasing energy supply and delivery reliability.
Construction Highlights:
- Main Process Building
- Electrolyte Tanks
Construction is on schedule for mechanical completion by April 2003. At that point the delivery of Electrolytes and the Regenerative Cells or Modules is possible.
