Energy storage aims to balance electricity supply and demand at various time scales (second-by-second), improving grid quality by minimizing power surges and sags. It may be deployed anywhere along the transmission and distribution networks or co-located with wind or solar generators – including residential, commercial and community level microgrids.
Convergent’s PEAK IQ analytics help to optimize charging and discharging these technologies to get maximum value out of them.
Renewable Energy
Renewabe energy differs from fossil fuels in that it doesn’t release greenhouse gasses during production; however, unlike its fossil counterparts it cannot always be generated due to solar or wind variations.
Energy storage enables us to continue powering the grid with renewables even when sun and wind don’t shine and blow. Furthermore, it helps achieve flexibility, enhance grid reliability and power quality and support scaling-up renewables and electric vehicles.
Energy storage devices range from batteries and flywheels, supercapacitors, molten salt thermal storage and volcanic rock thermal energy storage technologies – with batteries being the primary choice – to batteries, flywheels, supercapacitors and thermal thermal energy storage units used by homes and businesses for peak shaving, integration with renewables on-site or behind the meter, optimizing self consumption or as backup applications.
Community Resilience
Imagine a future where widespread energy storage deployments help communities become more resilient against disruptions. Through energy storage, businesses and residents can continue operating during power outages; hospitals remain operational; local economies continue to thrive.
Though community resilience is a multidimensional concept, its core competencies typically encompass: community connection and caring, resources, transformative potential and information and communication. A number of researchers have created models which incorporate all these aspects.
Resilience has long been acknowledged as a critical component of disaster recovery. Yet barriers still persist for low-income communities – in particular around energy storage solutions which provide backup power and economic opportunities through community microgrids equipped with storage. Implementing interoperability standards, streamlining permitting processes, and creating innovative financing mechanisms may all play a part in increasing community resilience during a disaster response period.
Electricity Pricing
Energy storage systems (ESSs), in general, offer cheaper electricity during off-peak hours to charge during these times and discharge when high demand occurs; ultimately reducing energy bills significantly.
Batteries are the primary energy storage technology. Rechargeable batteries store chemical energy as electricity that can quickly be turned on or off as needed. Other technologies used for energy storage include compressed air storage, superconducting magnetics and underground pumped storage.
On-site storage can help commercial buildings reduce electricity costs. Its uses range from energy arbitrage (buying off-peak electricity and selling it on at peak), solar firming, voltage regulation services such as frequency regulation and intermittency gaps from renewables; to providing voltage regulation services like frequency regulation or providing voltage control ancillary services like voltage regulation frequency regulation or intermittency gaps from renewables bridging between intermittent periods from renewables. With intelligent deployment energy storage can even delay or avoid new infrastructure (wires), by adding capacity and resilience where most needed by adding capacity and resilience wherever needed most.
Utility Integration
The Department of Energy is working closely with electric utilities, industry trade organizations, research institutions, storage technology providers and others to identify and address a broad spectrum of energy storage applications necessary for modernizing grid. This includes services like peak shaving, area regulation, reserve capacity support voltage support demand response system resiliency.
Front-of-the-meter applications help utilities improve grid stability and integrate renewable energy, while behind-the-meter apps enable consumers to optimize energy use and cut costs.
Commercial and industrial customers worldwide pay demand charges based on their highest power draws throughout a billing cycle, known as peak demands. Energy storage systems may help lower demand charges by discharging stored energy during times of peak demand – eliminating the need for costly natural gas peaker plants to meet that peak.
Integrating various systems and technologies across a utility requires clear communication protocols, standard data formats, collaboration among service providers and technology vendors, and collaboration among service providers and technology vendors. Xtensible’s utility enterprise integration solution facilitates this process, offering technical and semantic interoperability between systems.