Energy storage-enabled applications are poised to disrupt energy markets, according to Navigant Research.

In the next 3-5 years, the energy storage industry is positioned to truly scale and echo the explosive growth seen in the solar photovoltaic industry.

Incremental improvements in energy storage technologies, developments in regional regulatory and market drivers, and emerging business models are poised to make energy storage a growing and viable part of the electricity grid.

“New players will be able to offer a suite of solutions that promote connected homes and robust energy options,” says Anissa Dehamna, principal research analyst with Navigant Research. “Evolving business models call for utilities to become more agile and not only address the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity, but also focus more on grid services and develop customer-friendly solutions.”

The distributed energy resources sector on both the utility and customer sides of the meter will continue to create new opportunities for energy storage-enabled applications, according to the report. IT, telecommunications, and consumer product companies will continue to present a disruptive threat to utilities given their focus to date on energy and smart grid applications and their ability to extract value from data and customer relationships.

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Irvine Ranch Water District and Advanced Microgrid Solutions have teamed up to build the largest energy storage project for a public water agency in the country. And the project will not only benefit the water agency, but the whole region.

A NEW FRONTIER in the energy-water nexus is being forged in Southern California. Teaming up with Advanced Microgrid Solutions, Irvine Ranch Water District will be using an energy storage system to reduce its costs and help ease demand on the grid during peak hours.

The project is the largest of its kind at a public water agency in theU.S., and the 7 megawatt (MW) and 34 megawatt-hour (MWh) network will utilize Tesla batteries to store power at 11 of Irving Ranch Water District’s (IRWD) most energy-intensive points in its operations – including three water treatment plants, six pumping stations, a deep water aquifer treatment plant and a groundwater de-salter facility.

For IRWD, the largest water utility in Orange County, electric usage is the third largest expenditure in its budget, said Paul Cook, the agency’s general manager. “We move a lot of water, we treat a lot of water and that takes energy,” he said.

IRWD’s project signals a growing opportunity for water agencies to utilize energy storage, not just to reduce the costs of their own operations, but to play a larger role in helping to reduce peak demand on the grid, and thereby cut the need for more fossil-fuel consuming power plants.

Electric utilities have to deal with peak demand on the grid during certain times of the day (usually late afternoon), and customers such as IRWD often have to pay more for usage during those times.

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Gov. Jerry Brown, D-Calif., has signed into law four new bills that are expected to directly impact energy storage in California.

According to the California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA), the bills will collectively grow the behind-the-meter and utility-scale energy storage markets, create new clean energy jobs, reduce distributed energy resource interconnection challenges, and ensure that bulk energy storage is part of the states’s renewable energy future. The four pieces of legislation include the following:

• A.B.1637 increases the Self Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) funding by $249 million, which (CESA) says sends a clear market signal to industry stakeholders that behind-the-meter energy storage will play a key role in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and supporting the next-generation electric grid. Thanks to the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) recent SGIP reforms, 75% of the program budget going forward is now reserved for energy storage, adds CESA.

• A.B.2868 requires the CPUC to direct California’s three investor-owned utilities (IOUs) to accelerate the deployment of distributed energy storage by filing applications for new programs and investments of up to 500 MW. CESA says this bill directly increases the market for energy storage in California, as the 500 MW is in addition to the 1.325 GW procurement goal that California established in 2013.

• A.B.2861 authorizes the CPUC to create an objective, expedited dispute-resolution process for distributed, behind-the-meter energy resources attempting to establish an interconnection to an IOU’s electricity distribution network. CESA says this bill and resulting dispute resolution process will accelerate and reduce Rule 21 interconnection costs.

• A.B.33 directs the CPUC and California Energy Commission to evaluate and analyze the potential for all types of long-duration bulk energy storage, such as pumped hydro, to help integrate renewable generation into the grid. CESA says this bill ensures broader consideration of bulk energy storage’s unique capabilities and market roles.

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