"ESNA is the catalyst for people all over the world to come together, meet each other, collaborate, formulate ideas and most importantly leave here inspired to make change happen," said Janice Lin, ESNA Co-founder and Conference Chair.

SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwired - Aug 24, 2017) - Energy Storage North America (ESNA), the largest conference, exhibition and networking event for the North American energy storage industry, concluded its fifth annual event this month in San Diego, Calif. ESNA's record attendance and multi-country representation reinforced global progress in the transition to an efficient integration of energy resources, shifts in consumer behavior and the implementation of new market structures for distributed energy resources.

"ESNA is the catalyst for people all over the world to come together, meet each other, collaborate, formulate ideas and most importantly leave here inspired to make change happen," said Janice Lin, ESNA Co-founder and Conference Chair.

This year's ESNA featured a sold-out expo show floor and approximately 2,000 attendees, representing 1,000+ organizations and 26 countries, including industry leaders driving the development of energy storage markets in Mexico, Australia and China. ESNA attendees heard from expert speakers representing utilities, grid operators, investors, storage developers, elected officials and regulators. The conference agenda featured 24 panel sessions and nine keynote addresses dedicated to opening global energy markets, planning for peak power, building resilient cities and empowering energy customers.
"The great thing about Energy Storage North America is that it brings together the experts in energy storage, the technology developers, the utilities that are deploying it and even the advocates," said California State Senator Nancy Skinner.
"For those people who haven't yet embraced energy storage, don't see either its potential or its real value and how it is being deployed now all throughout the U.S. and the world, this is the place to learn about it and to get that experience first hand."
Embracing Global Transformation
The first-ever Global Grid Transformation track hosted several multi-country delegations to exchange ideas, address challenges, and collectively promote a decarbonized, resilient and affordable power grid. The track's keynote panel featured delegates from California and Mexico, including Guillermo García Alcocer of the Mexico CRE; Emilio Camacho, Esq., of the California Energy Commission; Angelina Galiteva of the California ISO and Marcos Valenzuela of CENACE. The panelists discussed collaborative cross-border efforts to transform Mexico's huge potential energy storage market.
The global agenda also included three concurrent roundtable discussions with industry leaders from Mexico, Australia and China, as well as a World of Energy Storage Showcase where representatives provided real-time market updates from Australia, China, Germany, India and the U.S.
The Energy Storage Transition in Action
Specially curated events at ESNA also highlighted important sectors, sites and stakeholders in energy storage. Six interactive workshops took a deep dive into energy storage trends, technologies, economics, markets and recent procurements of scale. Five site tours exemplified our grid's real-time transition to storage, from the University of California San Diego microgrid, to the world's largest battery energy storage system in Escondido, to an ice-based thermal storage system at Mission City Offices and more.
The annual ESNA Awards ceremony recognized innovative projects in the centralized and distributed storage sectors, as well as policy and utility champions who have advanced the role of storage through their work. Southern California Edison won one of two Centralized Storage Innovation Awards for its Hybrid Enhanced Gas Turbine with Energy Storage. Other winners include the SDG&E Expedited Energy Storage Project (Centralized Storage) and the Marcus Garvey Village Solar + Storage + Fuel Cell Microgrid (Distributed Storage). Ronald Nichols, Southern California Edison President, received this year's Utility Champion Award, and Amy Paulin, New York State Assemblywoman (D-88), was named this year's Policy Champion.
"ESNA overall is an organization that's just done so much for bringing together all the different aspects of technology, regulation, policy, finance to be able to show people what energy storage can do in all those different measures..." commented Nichols. "...Kudos to what ESNA has done to make that happen."
The second annual Women in Energy Storage networking event fostered connections among women in the industry; and the debut of an "Entrepreneurs in Action" session allowed startup companies to take the expo stage and highlight their most promising storage solutions.
"ESNA is a great place for us to come and to meet our counterparts across the country, across the industry, to share ideas, to collaborate, to share experiences and to really learn from each other as we face the future of building more and more energy storage in this ever-changing environment," said Emily Shults, Vice President of Energy Supply at San Diego Gas and Electric.
ESNA is grateful to its many sponsors, including Platinum sponsors AES Energy Storage, Demand Energy and GE; Gold sponsors East Penn, Green Charge, PG&E, S&C Electric, SDG&E and Southern California Edison; Silver sponsors IBEW Local 569, NECA and Siemens; and Additional Event sponsors CalCharge, GESA, National Grid, NextEra Energy Resources and the Polyglot Group.
Next year's Energy Storage North America Conference and Expo will take place on November 6-8, 2018 in Pasadena, California.
About Energy Storage North America
Energy Storage North America (ESNA) is the largest conference, exhibition and networking event for the North American energy storage industry. ESNA is produced by Strategen Consulting and Messe Dusseldorf North America, and is part of the larger World of Energy Storage events happening in Europe, India, China and Japan. ESNA connects developers, energy users, utilities and policymakers to advance understanding and deployment of energy storage, and ultimately build a cleaner, more affordable and more resilient grid. www.esnaexpo.com.
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