Developer Hexagon selling 2GW standalone ERCOT BESS pipeline

By: Cameron Murray

"Developer Hexagon is talking to investment bankers with a view to selling a portfolio of battery storage projects in the ERCOT, Texas market, totaling 2GW.

Hexagon CEO Matthew Hantzmon revealed the sale in a recent interview in which he said the 17 comprising projects have a targeted commercial operation date (COD) of Q3 2025. All are designed for two-hour batteries, with 16 out of 17 being 100MW systems and one pegged at 200MW.

Though, it may delay the COD timeline to provide more certainty around domestic content procurement, he added. Energy storage facilities can benefit from a 10% uplift to the investment tax credit (ITC) by using a minimum proportion of US-made equipment, explored by Energy-Storage.news in more detail here.

Hantzmon said it was considering delaying a large solar project, the 138MW Woodridge facility in Virginia, to capture the adder which also applies to renewable generation technologies.

In concurrent news, developer New Leaf Energy has developed a smaller, 64MW pipeline of standalone battery energy storage projects in the ERCOT market, mainly 9.99MW systems of 1 or 2-hours’ duration.

The company didn’t specify whether the projects are for sale or not. However, a spokesperson confirmed New Leaf is a developer that would typically sell at the ready-to-build (RTB) and that the projects are expected to have executable interconnection agreements in place by January 2024.

The seven projects are located in the South and Coastal ERCOT regions within the utility territories of AEP and Centerpoint.

ERCOT, Texas is currently a hotbed of battery storage activity, with huge opportunities in the state’s ancillary services market and in capitalising on massive spreads in the intraday electricity market. ERCOT expects to have some 8GW online by this time next year.

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