GridBeyond, a global leader in smart energy management, and Gore Street Energy Storage Fund plc (LSE: GSF), a leading international energy storage investment fund, over the summer began operating the Big Rock Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) in El Centro, California. Bringing Big Rock live involved a large team of over 20 people coordinating across multiple countries and time zones, comprising data scientists, regulatory analysts and industrial control engineers. At 200 MW / 400 MWh, it is the largest asset managed by Gore Street Capital and GridBeyond and will dispatch power to roughly 200,000 homes in Southern California during peak times.
“This is an enormous battery system and an important source of resiliency to the state of California,” said Sean McEvoy, President of North America at GridBeyond. “As CAISO’s daily Regulation Up/Down requirement is often around 500MW-1200MW in total, this resource alone can provide up to 15%-40% of the state’s Regulation Services needs in certain hours.”
To ensure maximum return on investment and grid impact, GridBeyond was selected to provide trading and optimization services for the Big Rock BESS. Central to its offering is GridBeyond’s proprietary AI-based Bid Optimizer, which matches market price forecasts with real-time battery performance simulations to drive optimal bid strategies in the CAISO market.
“We are pleased to partner with a high-quality counterparty like GridBeyond on this landmark project, being able to capture revenues which outperform the market and tolling has been demonstrated by Gore Street for many years,” said Alex O’Cinneide, CEO of Gore Street Capital. “Big Rock is not only a critical part of California’s energy infrastructure, but also a strong example of our ability to deliver for investors at scale and across multiple international markets.”
The Big Rock BESS is underpinned by a 12-year fixed-price Resource Adequacy (RA) contract, valued at over USD 165 million over its term. Operated under this RA contract—secured by a Goldman Sachs subsidiary in October 2024—the facility is positioned to generate up to c.40% of its total project revenue through RA payments alone. The facility also benefits from stackable market participation, enabling it to tap multiple revenue streams, including energy arbitrage and ancillary services, as well as the RA contract.
The project comes shortly after GridBeyond began commercial operations of the PORT battery in Kanto Japan and in anticipation of three additional battery projects achieving COD in ERCOT (Texas) later this summer.
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"We are pleased to partner with a counterparty like GridBeyond on this project, being able to capture revenues which outperform the market and tolling has been demonstrated by Gore Street for many years” said Alex O’Cinneide, CEO of Gore Street Capital