CAES Development, a portfolio company of Haddington Venture’s managed funds, has sold to the rights to the Norton Energy Storage Project, a compressed air energy storage facility under development in Norton, Ohio, to FirstEnergy Generation.
"We are very pleased to have reached an agreement with FirstEnergy for their acquisition of this project," says Haddington managing director John A. Strom (pictured). "The rapid growth in renewable wind energy is accelerating the need for additional bulk energy storage to support renewable integration, and the flexibility of CAES facilities to provide both regulation and load following services, combined with their low energy production costs, are unmatched by any other natural gas-fired generation resource."
"The compressed-air technology envisioned at this site would enable us to produce energy that essentially can be stored and used at another time," says Gary R. Leidich, FirstEnergy executive vice president and president of FirstEnergy Generation. "Many renewable energy sources – such as wind – are intermittent and not always available when customers need them. The energy storage aspects of this project could complement our region’s overall renewable energy efforts because the power can be dispatched when it is needed."
Haddington has obtained all permits necessary to develop more than 2,000 megawatts of storage in a 2,200-foot-deep inactive mine on a 92-acre site near Norton. Engineering and equipment design and project cost estimates have been completed for the first 268 MW of generation (two modules) and 220 MW of compression, allowing for substantial expansion after the first phase.
Compressed air energy storage allows utilities to use inexpensive and renewable off-peak electricity to compress air and store it in airtight underground caverns to later meet periods of high demand. When electric power demand peaks during the day, the process is reversed, and the compressed air is returned to the surface and combined with a third of the natural gas typically used in gas-fired power generation to produce electricity.
Haddington Ventures, through its private equity funds, generally makes control-oriented investments in companies focused on gathering, separation, processing, treating, compression, storage, and transmission of energy.
FirstEnergy is a diversified energy company headquartered in Akron, Ohio. Its subsidiaries and affiliates are involved in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, as well as energy management and other energy-related services.
