Deploying Battery Energy Storage SCADA for Renewable Grid Resilience in Stanton

Wellhead Electric Company built a state-of-the-art battery energy storage facility in Stanton, California. The Stanton Battery Energy Storage System (SBES) captures excess renewable energy and stores 275.2 MWh with zero emissions, capable of powering 65,000 homes autonomously overnight and displacing more than 40,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) annually. To bring this facility online, Wellhead needed to integrate EMS data with its existing Plant SCADA system, consolidate all data into a Historian, and establish a streamlined workflow capable of managing the system’s extensive data and alarm volumes.

We developed a new Plant SCADA system to communicate with the EMS and enable SBES to direct battery charge and discharge commands in milliseconds. The system controls more than 15,540 battery modules across 28 containers—each equipped with fire suppression and redundant heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems—and monitors more than 200,000 tags and 120,000 alarms to detect early warning signs such as slight temperature increases.

To manage historization at scale, we deployed an AVEVA Historian instance covering more than 60,000 tags. A publish-subscribe communication protocol was implemented to transmit data only upon changes, reducing network congestion and improving system responsiveness. The programmable logic controller (PLC) processed commands from SCADA to the EMS via Modbus communications and interfaced directly with the California Independent System Operator (ISO) and Southern California Edison, enabling fully automated energy dispatch.