Santa Barbara celebrates installation of new battery system at area water treatment facility

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – On Thursday, the City of Santa Barbara celebrated the installation of a battery energy storage system at the Cater Water Treatment Facility.

The William B. Cater Water Treatment Plant has been in operation since 1964 and plays a critical role in providing clean drinking water from Goleta to Carpinteria detailed Water Resources Division Manager Joshua Haggmark at the event.

The new battery system was sized to provide four hours of backup power for each pump station at full power and will serve as the primary alternate power source as 99% of utility outages are less than four hours explained Haggmark in his remarks at the ribbon-cutting.

According to Haggmark, solar energy collected during the day will be stored at the on-site batteries and be used to remove the electrical demand at the facility during peak hours of demand, the equivalent of power for hundreds of homes.