A 150-megawatt battery storage system in Utah County has reportedly started running, with Lydian Energy behind the project known as Faraday BESS. The news comes amid a wave of battery buildout across Utah, where multiple companies have been racing to connect large-scale storage systems to the grid to back up solar and wind power.
According to Renewables Now, Lydian has started operations at a 150-MW/600-MWh battery in Utah, though that figure is not the only one circulating for the project. A separate headline from FinancialContent states that Lydian brought the 150-MW Faraday battery storage project online in Utah under a long-term agreement with PacifiCorp, though that account carries lower confidence than a direct project announcement would.
The capacity numbers tell a murkier story. Lydian's own website describes Faraday BESS as a 150-MW, four-hour duration battery system located in Utah County, Utah, which corresponds to 600 MWh of storage, matching the figure reported elsewhere. Meanwhile, a BusinessWire snippet from February describes Faraday BESS Phase 1 as a 150 MW/733 MWh battery energy storage system in Utah, yet another figure that doesn't cleanly match the others. It remains unclear whether these numbers describe the same configuration, different phases of the project, or simply inconsistent reporting.
A PacifiCorp Deal Years in the Making
The roots of the Faraday project trace back to early 2023. A Utah Public Service Commission filing states that on January 20, 2023, PacifiCorp executed a purchase power agreement and a battery storage agreement for the Faraday solar and battery storage project, according to documents posted at pscdocs.utah.gov. The filing does not spell out the full terms or duration of that agreement.
Lydian describes itself as having twenty utility-scale power infrastructure projects — solar, storage, and hybrid assets — advancing through development, construction, and operation across the country, per the company's own website. Faraday appears to be one of the more advanced entries in that pipeline, assuming the operations reports hold up.
Utah's Battery Boom Keeps Growing
Lydian isn't the only developer racing to add storage capacity in Utah. Clearway Energy Group recently signed long-term contracts with PacifiCorp for an additional 210 MW of battery storage across three new facilities in the state, according to Energy Digital. Those new projects will bring Clearway's Utah battery fleet to seven systems capable of storing and deploying 2,120 megawatt-hours, the outlet reports.
Clearway puts the cost of its Honeycomb Energy Center at approximately $400 million, and the company says the construction will create at least 150 jobs. The projects are also expected to generate $37 million in additional operating tax revenue for Beaver and Iron counties during operations, per the same report.
The buildout in Utah fits into a much larger national trend. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that operators added 8.3 gigawatts of battery storage capacity during the first six months of 2026, pushing nationwide nameplate battery storage capacity to nearly 52 gigawatts, according to eia.gov. Projects like Faraday and Clearway's expanding fleet are part of that broader surge, even as basic details about individual systems — like exactly how many megawatt-hours Faraday can store — remain unsettled.
