In May of 2016, the US Representative from Silicon Valley, Mike Honda (D), introduced the Energy Storage for Grid Resilience and Modernization Act (H.R. 5350). In short, this bill extends the current 30% Renewable Energy Tax Credit (which was just extended last year) to energy storage technologies, not just the wind, solar, and geothermal power plants that feed electricity into the grid.
This bill would help accelerate deployment of energy storage that’s already underway, and that can play a pivotal role in the expansion of renewable energy.
Here are a few ways energy storage can help.
Balancing Supply and Demand
The big change wrought by renewables is flipping the grid, from a focus on providing electricity to match demand to making both supply and demand flexible. The following graphic illustrates. Among other technologies (like pumped hydro storage, or even fast-response natural gas power plants) batteries can respond instantly to gaps in supply or demand.
Providing Reliable, Quality Power
Batteries also provide an important service called “reactive power” that maintains the grid’s constant voltage. Since the motors and devices we use depend on a consistent voltage, and traditional power plants struggle to do this over long distances, distributed energy storage means higher quality and more reliable power.
Lowering Costs
For electric customers with their own storage system, it can help them reduce costs, sometimes significantly. For many customers, electricity prices are higher at certain times of day, and charging the battery when power is cheap and tapping into it when power is expensive — called arbitrage — can reduce the cost of electricity.
For commercial customers, it’s even more beneficial, since a portion of their electric bill is based upon their highest use in any hour of the month. If the battery (typically in concert with a solar array) can shave that peak, it can substantially reduce costs.
The graphic below, from an energy management company, shows how the battery storage system was able to change the company’s electricity use. The green line with the peaks was the old usage, the blue line represents the new usage with the storage system.
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