Energy Storage System Benefits
Energy storage systems address the intermittency of renewable power supplies. They enable a shift from fossil fuels to clean and efficient electricity for homes, businesses and communities.
These technologies vary in their applications. Long duration batteries can provide grid services like frequency modulation and peak shaving.
Unlike flywheels, modern battery energy storage systems with integrated inverters are easy to install and largely maintenance-free. They can work with solar or alone as emergency backup.
Energy Efficiency
Energy storage systems provide energy efficiency benefits by lowering the overall cost of grid operations. They respond to electricity price spikes and supply interruptions by absorbing and discharging power as needed, mitigating the impact of variable or intermittent resources like wind and solar, providing frequency and voltage regulation, and deferring or avoiding investments in transmission and distribution.
An energy storage system can also enable distributed energy resources to respond faster to changes in demand, reducing the need for backup generation. For example, a battery-based energy storage system can begin discharging power in as little as a fraction of a second to quickly respond to unexpected demand changes, which could otherwise lead to outages or expensive dispatch of back-up power plants.
As the cost of energy storage continues to decline, the technology is rapidly gaining interest and popularity across the grid, from community-scale installations to electric vehicle-to-grid (EV-to-grid) systems to long-duration, bi-directional systems that can support grid flexibility. SwRI’s Energy Storage Technology Center provides science and engineering expertise to develop the batteries, battery chemistries and cell/pack combinations used in these systems, and we are developing solutions for novel energy storage technologies such as flywheels and compressed air. We are also collaborating to accelerate the development of long-duration, grid-scale energy storage through the DOE Energy Storage Grand Challenge, which calls for a 90% reduction in the cost of grid-scale, 10+ hour discharge battery storage systems by 2025.
Reduced Operational Costs
An Energy Storage System is a powerful tool to help your facility reduce operational costs. A battery energy storage systems allows you to reduce demand charges – the 15-minute periods of highest electricity usage during the day, which can account for 50 percent of your energy bill. This is because it provides you with the ability to dispatch stored energy during peak usage, effectively “flattening” your demand curve.
It can also enable you to purchase electricity from a competitive retail supplier during off-peak hours, further reducing your energy costs. An Energy storage system energy storage system can also provide emergency back-up power, enabling you to keep critical operations running during outages. This is a valuable option for facilities in regions with frequent and prolonged outages due to severe weather.
Lastly, an Energy Storage System can allow you to maximize the value of renewable energy by capturing energy from solar and wind sources when it is not available. By combining a battery energy storage system with your solar or wind generation system, you can turn your building into its own private power network that can deliver 24/7 electricity at much lower cost than a traditional grid connection.
In addition to lowering utility bills, Energy Storage Systems can add value to the grid through multiple services such as peak shaving (coincident and non-coincident), frequency regulation, voltage support, demand response, and system resiliency. Energy storage also increases system flexibility, helping the grid to better balance intermittent energy sources. These services and savings can be passed on to your members/ratepayers or used to create new revenue streams for utilities.
Reduced Carbon Footprint
Energy storage systems allow electric power to be stored and used on demand. This helps to reduce the load on local power networks and can also increase the share of renewable energy in your energy mix. Moreover, battery systems can help to avoid peak demands at times when energy rates are highest.
An energy storage system consists of one or more battery modules, onboard sensors and control components. They can be DC coupled with a separate inverter or AC coupled with integrated inverters. DC coupled units are cheaper, but less versatile than AC coupled ones.
Battery electricity storage systems can be front-of-the-meter (FTM) or behind-the-meter (BTM). FTM systems are installed on the customer’s premises and are used to stabilize their energy supply and cut costs, while BTM systems can also provide back-up services to the grid or generate additional revenue.
The Office of Electricity (OE) accelerates bi-directional electrical energy storage technologies as a key component of a future-ready grid. OE is supporting technologies to improve storage efficiency, safety, and reliability; develop advanced electrolytes and flow batteries; and explore innovative nano-structured electrodes and materials that enable cost effective long duration storage. Additionally, OE supports applied research on low-cost, earth abundant elements to enable cost-effective long duration storage, as well as high voltage power electronics to support the transmission of electric power over longer distances.
Increased Productivity
In data centers and hospitals, power interruptions can mean lost productivity. Energy Storage Systems (ESS) deliver instantaneous backup to keep operations running during outages, reducing reliance on generators and providing more reliability.
OE’s advanced energy storage technologies help businesses to safely integrate more renewables, microgrids and electric vehicles into their power supply. Energy storage works with the existing grid to maintain high reliability, reduce costs and carbon emissions, and increase security and resilience.
Energy storage solutions can help smooth out the delivery of variable or intermittent renewables like wind and solar by storing excess electricity at times when the sun is shining or the wind is Energy storage system blowing, and then delivering it when needed. It can also support the efficient delivery of electricity for inflexible, baseload resources.
Utility scale energy storage can provide a wide range of ancillary services to the grid, including peak shaving, reserve capacity, frequency regulation, voltage control, demand response, and system resiliency. These benefits can be passed on to customers to lower electricity prices.
Unlike traditional UPSs, energy storage systems don’t need an expensive power source to operate and can be used alongside solar arrays to enable solar self-consumption in homes, buildings, or commercial facilities. They have multiple, easily swappable battery modules, onboard sensors, and control components that keep them safe, efficient, and cost-effective. They are available in DC-coupled units that require a separate inverter and AC coupled options, which can be integrated with solar panels or connected directly to the grid.
