BPW battery project on hold

A Swiss company that had plans to store electricity for the Lewes Board of Public Works power system has filed Chapter 11. 

Alevo had planned to construct a state-of-the-art electric storage system in the BPW’s former electric facility on Schley Avenue. The 8MW battery storage setup would store power that could be used on high-demand days, giving the BPW a more reliable system. 

General Manager Darrin Gordon says the bankruptcy doesn’t mean the project will not happen, though. 

“They’re restructuring,” he said. “They stopped paying rent in August, and we wrote them a letter saying they’re in default, but I don’t have any other companies knocking down the door to rent the space. It’s a wait-and-see thing.” 

BPW officials agreed to partner with the company in fall 2015, and the company started renting the Schley Avenue space in summer 2016. Since that time, though, no work has occurred. Gordon said that’s not unusual. He said the company builds a unit full of batteries equal to the size of a train car and drops it off. 

“They could be in there in two weeks,” he said. 

Alevo has already built a 2MW system in Hagerstown, Md., he said. 

The company is based in Switzerland, with two facilities in Germany. It opened a 2.5-million-square-foot manufacturing factory in an old Phillip Morris cigarette factory in Concord, N.C., where it also has a 1-million-square-foot warehouse. The company had a big vision for the plant, but it did not meet expectations, and all 290 employees were laid off, according to an article in the Charlotte Business Journal. 

Gordon said the company is trying to split its operation to have an American side and a European side. 

Alevo’s primary function at the Lewes facility would be to participate in frequency regulation in the PJM wholesale market, meaning the company will use its storage system to create a more efficient system for the entire region.