Any electrical network needs to balance supply and demand at every operational moment, be it the public grid or the internal network of an electricity consumer. This is not always an easy task. While the electricity demand has always been variable, renewable energy sources have made the supply more variable and less predictable than previous generation methods. Storage systems can relieve this complex balancing task.
Network grid operators can use storage systems for:
Transmission and Distribution Upgrade deferral.
Problems may arise at the end of a transmission or distribution line due to communities growing faster than the grid can be upgraded. This leads to
temporary overloads of the electrical infrastructure. Instead of upgrading immediately, a storage system can be used to shave the load peaks. This peak shaving results in a better usage of the available capacity and thus extends the life of the connection.
Frequency regulation.
Power into the public grid has traditionally been generated by synchronous
generators. The generators are driven by turbines which are regulated to provide the exact mechanical power needed to keep them running at their nominal speed. This enables the grid frequency to remain constant. Electronic power sources such as PV inverters and wind turbines do not provide this kind of frequency regulation. Moreover, they can cause an imbalance between supply
and demand by pushing a variable supply onto the grid, causing additional frequency deviations. A storage system can be deployed to mitigate these variations and restore appropriate frequency regulation.
Electrical energy consumers can use storage systems for:
- Storage of renewable energy behind the meter.
Feed-in tariffs for on-site renewable energy production are being phased out or abolished in more and more countries. As a result, it has become increasingly beneficial to consume the locally produced renewable energy on site. A home energy management system with a battery can greatly increase self-use of locally produced renewable energy. It charges the battery when production exceeds demands and discharges it when demand exceeds production and would otherwise be satisfied by the grid connection.
- Peak shaving.
In a peak shaving application the storage system supplements grid power during demand peaks and recharges during periods of low demand. This leads to, for example, better utilization of the capacity of a mobile genset, or better utilization of a grid connection, there by reducing their cost. In certain cases, this cost decrease can pay for the storage system.
- Trading (market speculation)
Charging a storage system during periods of low (or even negative)
spot prices, and discharging it during periods of high spot prices is an easy to understand mechanism to earn money with a storage system. Unfortunately, the revenues of this mechanism are rarely sufficient to recover the cost of a storage system. In case a storage system has been installed for other reasons and has sufficient spare capacity, this can be a mechanism to slightly increase system
revenue on top of the contracted services.
- An Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS).
This is the classic application of battery energy storage. Uninterruptible Power Supplies serve to keep critical loads powered during blackouts and brownouts.
A battery based UPS must be able to power a load for a minimum duration after a power outage. This time may range from minutes to hours.
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