The summer of 2016 was one of dire warnings for Southern California energy consumers.
A massive methane leak from the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility outside Los Angeles had drained the region's natural gas supply, and the word went out that gas shortages could disrupt the region's power deliveries by the summer of 2017.
Amid fears of rolling blackouts across the nation's second-largest metro area and beyond, utilities like Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric latched on to a solution that for years had been quietly deployed, but needed an event like a looming gas shortage to be thrust into prime time.
The solution was large-scale battery storage.
Thanks in part to California's crisis, but also improving economics and new state policies, the technology is preparing for unprecedented growth in the United States over the next several years. As much as 1,800 megawatts of new energy storage — mostly from lithium-ion batteries — is expected to come online by 2021, according to GTM Research, which tracks the sector for the Energy Storage Association.
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