Vistra Energy Corp. is increasing the size of its Oakland (Battery Storage Project) at the Oakland power plant site to 36.25 MW, up from the previously announced capacity of 20 MW.

The company said April 15 that it anticipates the battery storage project will enter commercial operation by January 2022.

East Bay Community Energy approved an amended contract to receive the larger resource adequacy capacity from the project, while PG&E Corp. approved a new local area reliability service agreement as part of the Oakland clean energy initiative.

The battery system will be a partial replacement for the aging 165-MW jet fuel-fired plant, which is currently on a reliability must-run contract with the California ISO.

Vistra plans to eventually retire the existing units of the Oakland power plant and develop additional energy storage projects on the site in the future.