If distributed power networks are to become a reality, energy storage technology is essential. Alice Cooke looks at the barriers to the storage revolution.
Distributed energy resources are driving change in the utility sector worldwide as the ways in which power is generated and delivered become more diverse.
Spurred on by an increasing public desire for clean energy, falling prices and regulatory subsidies, solar photovoltaics, battery energy storage and microgrids are being deployed across the system.
In 2017, utility-scale energy storage – which had started as a handful of experimental programmes – became big news. There were prominent projects in Australia, Texas, southern California, and hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico.
Now, with the wind at its back, the industry is seeking a world where flexible power systems maximise efficiency to provide us all with clean, sustainable energy at a price we can afford. But this global movement requires utilities to transform their traditional centralised networks into distributed and integrated power networks, and these new networks must evolve rapidly from demonstration and pilot phases to solid, longer-term investments that must play an important part in new business models.
And this pressure for rapid progress is only increased by the fact that companies are working to achieve the most economical design and implementation for distributed energy and microgrid customers, while simultaneously seeking to maximise benefit from existing grid investments.
Energy storage will affect the entire electricity value chain as it replaces peaking plant, alters future transmission and distribution investments, reduces intermittency of renewables, restructures power markets and helps digitise the electricity ecosystem. The UK’s storage sector is booming, with new installations expected to help create savings to the tune of £8 billion by 2030, following a raft of energy storage announcements in the early months of 2018. Recently, a 50MW portfolio spanning two sites – a 40MW battery park in Glassenbury, Kent and a 10MW battery park in Cleator, Cumbria – was completed; and renewable energy provider Anesco announced proposals to bring 185MW of energy onto the grid.
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