Southern Co. hosts ribbon-cutting at research project facility

Southern Co. announced Thursday that energy industry leaders and local officials were invited to the ribbon-cutting of a battery storage research project in Cedartown, Georgia.

"As a national leader in innovation, Southern Co. recognizes the value for customers of inventing the future of energy," Southern Co. Executive Vice President Kimberly Greene said. "With the new Cedartown battery demonstration, we are taking an important step forward in the research, development and deployment of energy storage technologies that create better ways to deliver clean, safe, reliable and affordable power to the families we serve."

The project will evaluate a battery storage system that will use lithium-ion battery technology. It will have a capacity of 1 megawatt and 2 megawatt hours.

This project is a result of a partnership between Southern Co. and the Electric Power Research Institute. Their research would focus on how these systems could provide value to utility customers and how energy storage could allow smart grids to be more effective.

"Renewable resources, such as solar and wind, are inherently variable and intermittent – generating electricity only when the sun shines or the wind blows," Greene said. "Cost-effective battery storage could provide a viable solution to better manage and integrate renewables into the power grid."

The storage project is located at the Cedartown solar photovoltaic facility that is owned and operated by WGL Energy as a part of the Advanced Solar Initiative owned by the company's subsidiary, Georgia Power.

Southern Co. specializes in the generation and distribution of electricity through nuclear, renewable and other means.