After Successful First Project, Lightshift Energy to Develop Second Battery Project in Danville, VA

Business Wire

23-04-2025

DANVILLE, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lightshift Energy, a leading energy storage developer, owner, and operator, announced a second project with Danville Utilities that will bring meaningful cost savings and enhance grid reliability for the City of Danville. Danville II, the 11MW project, has also secured a funding award of $1.5 million from the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission 's Energy Ingenuity Fund to advance energy resilience for the region.
Following the success of Lightshift's first project with Danville ("Danville I"), which was Virginia's largest municipal energy storage project when built, Danville II builds on the city's commitment to reducing energy costs for its residents and supporting regional load growth. Danville II will operate as a peak-shaving asset, storing electricity during low-demand periods and discharging it back to the grid during peak hours. This model is projected to save Danville residents approximately $30 million over the project's 20-year lifespan.
'The City of Danville has been looking for various ways to stabilize electric costs for ratepayers. The project will help lower transmission and capacity costs and allow the City's electric rates to be competitive to other neighboring electric utilities when competing for economic development projects,' said Jason Grey, Danville Director of Utilities. 'We are very appreciative of the Virginia TRRC's support and our ongoing collaboration with Jerry Silva on the 11-megawatt battery energy storage system.'
Danville Utilities partnered with Lightshift a second time after experiencing the benefits of the Danville I project. Danville I is on track to save more than $40 million over the 20-year lifetime of the project by reducing transmission and capacity costs. With a capacity of 10.5 MW, Danville I has been supplying reliable, clean energy to the equivalent of nearly 9,000 homes since October 2022, helping to stabilize the grid and reduce energy prices. Both projects will help support advances in economic development as well as provide clean capacity for data centers in the region.
'This project demonstrates how strategic partnerships and energy investments can drive economic growth in the tobacco region through lowering energy costs and enhanced grid reliability,' said Jerry Silva, TRRC Director of Regional Energy Development and Innovation. 'Danville Utilities and Lightshift have been excellent partners in moving this project forward and we are happy to play a big role in educating our commissioners on the energy opportunity.'
The TRRC Energy Ingenuity Fund aims to support innovation and investment in energy technology to formerly tobacco-dependent communities in Virginia in order to improve access to affordable, reliable energy sources. This funding will enable Lightshift to expand the impact of Danville II, bringing additional savings to residents and supporting the regional economy through local job creation and building out the supply chain and expertise for battery energy storage systems in the region.
'Battery storage offers municipal utilities like Danville a valuable tool to stabilize energy costs, support large electric loads like data centers, and enhance grid reliability,' said Michael Herbert, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Lightshift Energy. 'We deeply value our ongoing partnership with Danville and are committed to bringing economic development and energy cost savings to the region.'
Danville City Council granted a special use permit on November 7 to advance the project, and the City Council also approved the project's site lease on March 16. The Project is expected to come online in Q2 2026.
About Lightshift Energy
Lightshift Energy is a utility-scale energy storage project developer, owner and operator headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. Founded in 2019, Lightshift is developing a diverse, multi-gigawatt pipeline of energy storage projects, located throughout the U.S. With leading energy storage analytics, application design, finance, and development expertise, Lightshift deploys dynamic, multi-use energy storage projects that maximize value for utilities and other partners, while reinvesting directly into the communities where their projects are located. For more information, please visit www.lightshift.com.
About Danville Utilities
Danville Utilities provides natural gas, water, wastewater and telecommunications services in Danville and distributes electricity to approximately 42,000 customer locations in a 500-square-mile service territory covering Danville, the southern third of Pittsylvania County, and small portions of Henry and Halifax counties.
The Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission is a 28-member body created by the 1999 General Assembly. Its mission is the promotion of economic growth and development in tobacco-dependent communities, using proceeds of the national tobacco settlement. To date, the Commission has awarded over 2,000 grants totaling more than $1.1 billion across the tobacco region of the Commonwealth, and has provided $309 million in indemnification payments to tobacco growers and quota holders.