Energy Storage: Making It Work with Generation Applications

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By Rick Fioravanti

We now have an influx of variables weighing on the grid, as deployment of renewable energy technologies escalate, renewable portfolio standards grow, and electric vehicle demand increases. We also still have an electric system that operates by just-in-time delivery. In its quest to help develop the Utility of the Future, KEMA has been studying energy storage – a key component to reinvent our electric system infrastructure.

Large renewables and other new technologies supply energy to the grid at varying

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capacities and spontaneous times, not necessarily aligned with energy demand. In the Utility of the Future guidebook, The promise of energy storage, KEMA discusses how grid-connected energy storage may be used to complement generation applications (chapter 2), if obstacles are overcome. 

Examples of generation applications, which are based on varying degrees of time, include:

• Regulation response
• Governor response
• Spinning reserves
• Real-time dispatch or balancing energy
• Renewables balancing (ramping)

New fast-storage technologies such as batteries and flywheels have proved to be viable resources for regulation in the independent system operator markets (ISO). Fast-storage technologies also have potential to facilitate governor response, but this has not been demonstrated yet. In some cases, these technologies can also be used for spinning reserves, where it may be more economical to use an advanced storage device in certain applications. This combination of services is also known as Ancillary Services.

In addition, since renewable energy production is generally unpredictable and variable, it is difficult to rely on it for the grid’s needs. Even during the instances where production does take a predictable pattern, ramp rates can be excessively high compared with normal load ramping. Storage can help to capitalize on energy produced from renewable resources, as well as accommodate or balance the fluctuating needs of the grid and moderate ramping.

KEMA recently completed a study involving energy storage for the California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program. In its published report, “Research Evaluation of Wind Generation, Solar Generation, and Storage Impact on the California Grid,” KEMA concluded two main points:

1)     High-penetration renewables would require major alterations to the California grid’s system operations.

2)     California would benefit from deploying fast-response electricity storage.

Energy storage is an integral component to transform the electric industry to the Utility of the Future. Storage could help the electric system to operate effectively and efficiently—to maintain balance and reliability—and truly benefit from new energy supplies that are evolving.  

In fact, for utility-scale storage systems, this is what we are seeing today. Utility-scale storage systems are being demonstrated at the megawatt-level for frequency regulation, spinning reserve, and integrating renewables like large solar and wind farms to the grid. 

Utilities should be tracking these efforts and noting the technologies that are utilized for the applications, to understand how well the devices perform and the requirements necessary to implement the application successfully.

Rick Fioravanti is Director of Storage Applications & Support at KEMA, which is a leading authority in energy consulting and testing and certification. Contributing authors: Ralph Masiello and Ali Nourai.

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