Fullmark Energy announced the Commercial Operations Date (COD) of its 20-MW/40-MWH Energy Storage project in Lake Elsinore, California. The Mijlpaal marks the third project to achieve activities within the Redwood Project Portfolio of Fullmark Energy, a strategic collection of energy storage facilities in South California.
The Ortega Project team has successfully navigated several complex challenges, including the development of a complicated interconnection design that met the requirements of the landowner and the implementation of a sensitive approach to Wetland retention that met California Department of Fish & Wildlife Standards. In addition to complying with the legal requirements, the project yielded extra community value via WaterlijnUpgrades for neighboring companies and transformed a previously neglected site with a thoughtful landscape architecture.
“The successful completion of Ortega represents more than just another project that comes online – it shows the ability of our team to solve the complex challenges that are inherent in the development of energy storage,” said Chris McKissack, CEO of Fullmark Energy. “Every project in our Redwood portfolio has taught us valuable lessons that make us better developers and operators. Ortega specifically showed how thoughtful development can tackle environmental problems and at the same time deliver meaningful benefits to the local community.”
The Ortega project agrees with two other operational facilities in the Portfolio of Redwood Projects of Fullmark Energy. The 20-MW/80-MWH Johanna ESS project in Santa Ana obtained commercial activities in 2021, which made one of the early battery storage implementations on the battery in California one of the early battery storage on Utility scale. More recent, the 20-MW/40-MWH Desert-Carris Project COD reached COD earlier this year in Palm Springs. The fourth project of the portfolio, the 65 MW/130-MWH San Jacinto facility in Banning, is almost complete.
Together, the Redwood projects 125 MW of energy storage capacity are strategically distributed over South California, which reduces some failure points, while revenue profiles are reinforced by diversified purchase contracts. This portfolio approach enabled Fullmark -Energy to guarantee consolidated financing, optimize capital efficiency and create a greater overall value for investors and stakeholders.
The Ortega project will participate in the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) market and offers critical grid services, including energy arbitration, frequency regulations and adequacy of resources. While California continues to integrate higher levels of renewable energy, storage projects such as Ortega play an essential role in maintaining the reliability of the network and accelerating the clean energy transfer of the state.
News item from Fullmark Energy
