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Salem Smart Power Center

Current status, energy mix, organizations, suppliers, equipment, controls, reported specifications, and project updates—with source-level citations.

CoverageDetailed public record
Named organizations8
System facts16
Sources reviewed9
Evidence reviewed2026-07-20

Portland General Electric's Salem Smart Power Center (SSPC) is a utility research and distribution-resilience installation built around a 5 MW/1.25 MWh lithium-ion battery, automated feeder equipment, customer demand response, a small customer rooftop-PV system, and dispatchable standby generation. It is not a 5 MW solar project: the often-repeated 5 MW figure is battery power and its 1.25 MWh energy rating gives only 15 minutes at full output. SSPC has also become the anchor for a newer City of Salem/PGE community-microgrid expansion, whose additional battery capacity and final commissioning status were not publicly documented by the research cutoff.

Research status
PGE placed the original SSPC in service in May 2013 and Oregon sources continued to describe it as operating in 2022. PNNL subsequently implemented and tested controls capable of stacking multiple grid services. In 2025 DOE issued a NEPA categorical exclusion for an expansion using an additional BESS and smart reclosers on PGE's Oxford-Rural distribution system, while the City still described the community-microgrid work as a grant-funded project. The original asset is therefore operational as last publicly confirmed; the expansion is in development/implementation, with neither a public as-built capacity nor clear commissioning announcement found through July 2026.
Historical classification
Community
Reported capacity
See component specifications
Coordinates
44.94290, -123.03510
Evidence note: “Every company” cannot be proven from public material alone. This page lists every organization found in the recovered record and reviewed sources, preserves unknown roles, and explicitly marks undisclosed controller or equipment details.
Report missing evidenceResearch methodology

Project delivery

Who was involved in Salem Smart Power Center?

8 publicly identified organizations. Where a recovered source named a participant without explaining its work, the role remains explicitly unspecified.

Organization

City of Salem / Salem Public Works

Community partner and host of non-colocated municipal solar/load assets in the newer expansion. [7][8]

Organization

Eaton

Supplier/integrator of the bidirectional inverter package and associated controls. [6]

Organization

EnerDel

Supplier of the original lithium-ion battery system identified in PNNL's technical assessment. [3]

Organization

Kettle Brand / Kettle Foods

Commercial customer associated with the feeder, rooftop solar and demand-response demonstration; the public record does not establish a 5 MW PV array at this site. [3][5]

Organization

Oregon Department of Energy

State energy-agency reporter for the original project and provider of a US$1 million grant for the newer community-microgrid work. [5][7]

Organization

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) / U.S. Department of Energy

Federal research, funding and controls-development partners; PNNL assessed battery economics and tested enhanced multi-service control. [2][4]

Organization

Portland General Electric

Publicly named participant; role not specified in the recovered record [1]

Organization

Portland General Electric (PGE)

Owner and operator of the original center, battery and feeder assets; utility partner for the community-microgrid expansion. [2][5][7]

System evidence

Energy mix, capacity, and specifications

Values can describe different project phases, generation sources, storage systems, or other components. Source citations are attached to each figure so discrepancies remain visible.

KW Solar
5000 [1]
Storage
5000 kWh [1]
Original battery
5 MW/1.25 MWh EnerDel lithium-ion, equivalent to 0.25 hour (15 minutes) at full rated output. The legacy 5 MWh value and descriptions of 5 MW of solar conflate different quantities and are not supported by the as-built assessment. [2][3]
Feeder and load scale
The demonstration feeder served about 500 customers and typically carried roughly 2.5 MW. This is a distribution-feeder research site, not all of Salem. [3]
Other original resources
A 616-panel customer rooftop-PV source, customer demand response, and approximately 5.7 MW of PGE dispatchable standby diesel generation participated in demonstrations. No authoritative source found gives the rooftop array's commissioned kW rating, so it should not be inferred from panel count. [3][5]
Expansion service boundary
The newer project is intended to link Public Works solar and the PGE battery system and support a Public Works building, six apartment buildings (96 units), 34 homes, four government buildings and one business. The City says storage capacity will increase but does not publish the added MW/MWh. [7][8]
Energy mix
Normally PGE grid electricity, with short-duration stored grid/renewable energy, customer solar and demand response; standby diesel was available for island demonstrations. Neither annual renewable production nor a project-level percentage mix has been published. [3][5]
Economics
PNNL reported a US$20.4 million original project cost and estimated that a comparable then-current battery installation might cost US$5.4 million. Its optimized modeling found about US$2.3 million in additional 20-year value over the then-current dispatch, including about US$2.1 million from Energy Imbalance Market participation; these are scenarios, not realized revenue. [2]

Controls and hardware

Equipment and controller details

Manufacturer and model are shown only when a source names them. Generic descriptions are not converted into guessed product assignments.

01

Battery energy storage

EnerDel

5 MW/1.25 MWh lithium-ion system. Public sources reviewed do not provide a current state-of-health or replacement history. [3]

02

Power conversion

Eaton — Power Xpert

Twenty 250 kW bidirectional inverter modules, with custom controls for real- and reactive-power commands. [6][3]

03

Distribution automation

Model not publicly disclosed

Smart feeder controls and switching support simulated/actual islanding and remote autonomous operation; the 2025 expansion also specifies smart distribution reclosers. [5][8]

04

Expansion BESS

Model not publicly disclosed

DOE's 2025 review identifies an additional battery energy storage system but does not disclose vendor, chemistry, MW, MWh or final in-service date. [8]

Technical record

Architecture, performance, and project updates

Concise technical facts, milestones, operating results, and later developments. Dated notes distinguish historical design claims from current evidence.

  • Controls and services

    SSPC was designed for islanding, frequency regulation/primary frequency response, voltage/reactive support, demand response and renewables integration. PNNL later demonstrated a controller able to coordinate multiple services rather than limiting dispatch to one use case. [4][6]

  • Observed utilization

    PNNL found that during its 2017 study period the battery was used only for primary frequency response and was economically underutilized. Its short duration made energy-intensive applications comparatively unattractive even though additional stacked-service value was modeled. [2]

  • Safety and staffing

    An Oregon filing states the original facility operated remotely without permanent on-site staff and recorded no fires or regulatory citations during its first five operating years. This is historical evidence, not a current safety audit. [9]

  • Phase boundary

    The 2013 research center and the post-2024 community-microgrid expansion share assets and location references but are not the same as-built scope. Added-capacity claims should remain provisional until PGE or the City publishes commissioning documentation. [7][8]

Provenance

9 sources

Primary owner, government, university, supplier, and engineering sources are preferred. Archived references preserve claims whose original pages moved or disappeared.

  1. [1]
    Recovered Microgrid Projects record

    Internet Archive · Archived source · captured 2021-04-20

  2. [2]
  3. [3]
  4. [4]
  5. [5]
    March 2019 Newsletter: Salem Smart Power Center

    Oregon Department of Energy · Primary source

  6. [6]
  7. [7]
    Renewable Energy Grant

    City of Salem · Primary source

  8. [8]
    CX-034042: Salem Smart Power Center Microgrid Expansion

    U.S. Department of Energy · Primary source

  9. [9]
    Salem Smart Power Center Request for Amendment filing

    Oregon Department of Energy / Portland General Electric · Primary source

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