A California company's plans to build a 200 megawatt energy storage system in Jersey Township in Licking County is intended to meet demand in one of the country's most datacenter-intensive regions.
Eolian is naming the multi-hundred-million-dollar project Flint Grid, a five-plus-hour duration grid-scale battery energy storage system. Construction has begun in an area adjacent to several New Albany-area datacenters on Jug Street just east of Beach Road..
The project is the first large-scale battery energy storage system to qualify for the PJM capacity market and the largest battery storage system to clear the 2027/28 Residual Capacity Auction, which represents more than 50 percent of all new battery storage capacity in that capacity year.
The project
also is also the first grid-scale battery storage system permitted by the Ohio Power Siting Board and the largest battery energy storage system built to date in Ohio, "establishing an important precedent for future energy storage development across the state," according to a news release from July 29.
The Dispatch has previously reported on advances in battery storage in response to concerns that AI-driven datacenters are become a burden on the power grid, which PJM is responsible for in Ohio and other states.
L-H Battery, the $4 billion battery manufacturing partnership between Honda Motor Co. and South Korea's LG Energy in Fayette County, announced earlier this year a shift away from batteries for electric vehicles and toward energy storage systems.
Eolian is actively collaborating with grid operators, regulators, and industry stakeholders on research and policy initiatives to advance battery energy storage integration into electricity markets ... and "a recognition that strategically-located battery storage projects can actually increase transmission capacity in constrained locations with increasing load demands," according to the news release.
"There’s growing consternation about how the US can rapidly scale infrastructure to support America's growing electricity demand, but not nearly enough conversation about how to use existing technology to unlock the wasted capacity that already exists on the grid" said Aaron Zubaty, founder and CEO of Eolian. "Flint Grid demonstrates how companies like Eolian have been investing in solutions to unlock the grid and reduce price pressures on consumers using proven and scalable technology."
The construction will cost "hundreds of millions of dollars," Zubaty said, noting that policymakers should consider changes to competitive electricity markets that might undermine the long-term investments already underway.
Battery energy storage complements traditional grid infrastructure by providing flexible capacity that responds in milliseconds to stabilize and back up the grid during high-risk events, while optimizing how to match power supply and demand through all hours of the day, every day of the year, the company said. The Licking County project is expected to become operational by the 2027–2028 PJM capacity year.
Growth and development reporter Dean Narciso can be reached at dnarciso@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: California firm to build massive energy storage battery near New Albany data centers
