Avangrid Starts Construction on 41 MW Shutler Battery in Oregon, Iberdrola’s First US Grid-Scale Storage
- Energy Storage News Utility-Scale BESS
Marin Holt
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- 5 minutes read
- Capacity: 41 MW / 82 MWh
- Duration: 2-hour
- Online: 2027
- Community investment: $110,000 per year
- Avangrid NW generation: 3 GW
Avangrid has started construction on the Shutler Energy Storage project, a 41 MW / 82 MWh battery in Gilliam County, Oregon, the first utility-scale battery in the United States for its Spanish parent company Iberdrola. The two-hour system, announced June 24, 2026, is scheduled to reach commercial operation in 2027 and joins roughly 3 GW of Avangrid generation across the Pacific Northwest.
Named for a nearby substation, the Shutler battery stores 82 MWh of energy, enough to run at full 41 MW output for two hours, drawing surplus wind and solar power when regional generation runs ahead of demand and returning it during evening peaks. Gilliam County, a wind-heavy corner of north-central Oregon along the Columbia River, already hosts Avangrid’s Oregon Trail Solar project; county commissioners amended a local tax exemption in June 2026 to cover the new storage asset.
Critical Perspective
Iberdrola is planting its first US grid-scale storage with a 41 MW / 82 MWh two-hour system, a deliberately small entry for a utility already tied to roughly 3 GW of Avangrid generation across the Pacific Northwest. The two-hour duration is the quiet risk here: California buyers have been shifting toward four- and eight-hour batteries as evening net-load peaks stretch longer than a single two-hour discharge can cover. When CAISO moved to duration-weighted capacity accounting, early two-hour projects saw their resource-adequacy value cut, nudging operators like Vistra at Moss Landing toward longer-duration expansions. If this Oregon build is really Iberdrola’s learning vehicle for the American market, why anchor that lesson to a two-hour design the largest US storage market is already moving beyond?
Why It Matters
Shutler is a small battery by utility-scale standards, but it is a marker: Iberdrola, one of Europe’s largest utilities, is putting its first grid-scale storage steel in the ground in the US through Avangrid rather than buying an operating project. For developers watching how European capital enters the American storage market, the entry point is a modest, wind-adjacent two-hour system in a rural county, not a headline gigawatt build.
The project also shows how storage developers are buying social license in small host communities. Avangrid committed $110,000 per year for the life of the project to two Gilliam County nonprofits, $55,000 each to the Condon Early Learning Center and the Arlington Childcare Center, a childcare-focused community benefit that pairs a 40-year-scale grid asset with a recurring local payment in a county of fewer than 2,000 residents.
“Shutler Energy Storage reflects Avangrid’s long-term commitment to Oregon and the Pacific Northwest,” said Avangrid CEO Jose Antonio Miranda. “This project adds a flexible resource that will strengthen grid reliability, support good-paying jobs, and help ensure the energy we generate is available when communities need it most.”
Sources
- Avangrid / BusinessWire, Avangrid to Build Battery Storage Project in Oregon (June 24, 2026)
- ESS News, Iberdrola expands with US battery project (June 30, 2026)
- pv magazine USA, Iberdrola expands with U.S. battery project (June 30, 2026)
- Electrek, Iberdrola kicks off its first large-scale battery project in the US (July 2, 2026)
