Alejandro Fajer, general manager of Mexico City-based energy storage system integrator Quartux, said recently that the company plans to deploy the country’s largest battery energy storage system in Mexico, and analyzed the opportunities and challenges currently faced by the Mexican energy storage market.
“Our business has grown rapidly in recent years and we are now looking at increasing the storage capacity of our energy storage portfolio to 300MWh in the coming quarters,” Fajer said.
Quartux recently secured an order from Revolve Renewable Power to supply and deploy a 3.2MWh battery storage system for a major hotel chain in Cancun. Fajer also said it would install a 25MWh battery storage system for another hotel.
It will be the largest battery storage system in Mexico and the largest commercial and industrial (C&I) battery storage system in Latin America, he said.
“These hotel chains are located in resorts that require a lot of energy-intensive products such as air conditioners, and will use electricity during peak power demand,” Fajer said. “These hotel chains are built off the grid, so they may face poor power quality. and intermittent problems that can be solved with battery energy storage systems.”
The largest battery energy storage system in Mexico is the 10MW battery energy storage system that Wärtsilä deployed in February 2021 with a wind farm.
The Mexican energy storage market is dominated by industrial and commercial energy storage projects after it became more difficult to buy and sell energy in the wholesale market. But that hasn’t killed the grid-side energy storage market, Fajer said, it’s just reduced the opportunity.
The opportunity to deploy grid-side energy storage systems lies in modifying the consumption curves of large power users. By avoiding high electricity prices during peak periods, electricity costs can be saved by 20% to 40%. Batteries can also help industrial users comply with stricter grid codes, which, if not followed, will cost companies 2% to 10% of their net revenue, which Fajer calls “energy quality services.
Quartux buys batteries and energy storage components from abroad and integrates them into a battery energy storage system deployed in Mexico. Fajer said that Quartux is mainly active in the Mexican market and is involved in 10 different industries, of which hotels are an important one.
“We can monitor our customers’ energy consumption curves 24/7 and be their energy advisors. We tell them if they add some solar power, we can install solar power for them,” he said.
Our business models are diverse. These energy facilities can be sold directly and charged for operating expenses. For this model, customers can expect returns within 2 to 5 years. We also offer a rental model but the most interesting thing for us is energy storage as a service, which we started in 2017, and cost savings for our customers. “
This model has also been introduced by other players in the Mexican energy storage market, most recently renewable energy developer FRV, US energy analytics and software provider Energy Toolbase, and local energy developer Ecopulse.
Like Ecopulse, On Energy Storage is another Quartux competitor. Ecopulse said the company already operates in more than 60 percent of Mexico.
Quartux recently received outside investment, Fajer said, without naming the investors.
Post time: Nov-03-2022