GridBeyond leads optimisation of 200 MW energy storage site in the US

Bringing Big Rock live involved a large team of over 20 people co-ordinating 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.

Sean McEvoy, President of North America at GridBeyond, commented: “This is an enormous battery system and an important source of resiliency to the state of California. As CAISO’s daily ‘regulation up/down’ requirement is often around 500 MW – 1200 MW in total, this resource alone can provide up to 15% – 40% of the state’s regulation service needs in certain hours.”

To ensure maximum return on investment and grid impact, GridBeyond was selected to provide trading and optimisation services for the Big Rock BESS. Central to its offering is GridBeyond’s proprietary artificial intelligence (AI)-based Bid Optimizer, which matches market price forecasts with real-time battery performance simulations to drive optimal bid strategies in the CAISO market.

Alex O’Cinneide, CEO of Gore Street Capital, responded: “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. 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 US$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 around 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 commercial operations data in ERCOT (Texas) later in summer 2025.

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