Lithium ion batteries look set to be no longer the domain of notebooks and other portable electronics in the near future – in fact, a bunch of truck-size battery banks are currently delivering quick bursts of juice to the electricity grid in upstate New York. This is made possible thanks to AES Energy Storage, a subsidiary of power generation company AES, touted that their first 8 megawatts of a planned 20-megawatt battery grid storage system are now online in Johnson City, New york. The entire project is tipped to be ready before the year is over, where the whole idea behind this network of batteries is to keep an even balance between energy supply and demand in that portion of the New York grid. Needless to say, the batteries will be used to store energy and based on a signal from grid operators, will relinquish its juice for as many seconds as required. Currently, this battery system supplies eight megawatts of juice to the grid in upstate New York for it to maintain a steady frequency, although that figure will see an expansion to 20 megawatts as time passes by.
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