Snohomish County PUD dedicated its second energy storage system in March 2017, recently installed at a substation in Everett, Wash. The system is the world’s largest containerized vanadium flow battery system by capacity. The batteries and control systems are housed in 20 shipping containers, each 20 feet in length, packed with tanks of a liquid electrolyte solution.

The PUD’s battery storage systems aim to transform the marketplace and how utilities manage grid operations. They also are designed to improve reliability and the integration of renewable energy resources, which are rapidly growing in the Pacific Northwest.

The PUD was joined at the dedication by Washington Governor Jay Inlsee and representatives from partnering organizations, including UniEnergy Technologies, which manufactured the battery, Doosan GridTech and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The energy storage system was made possible in part with a $7.3 million investment from the Washington State Clean Energy Fund.