Value of Energy Storage for Grid Applications

Technical Report · Wed May 01 04:00:00 EDT 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1079719· OSTI ID:1079719

Denholm, Paul ^[1]; Jorgenson, Jennie ^[1]; Hummon, Marissa ^[1]; Jenkin, Thomas ^[1]; Palchak, David ^[1]; Kirby, Brendan ^[2]; Ma, Ookie ^[3]; O'Malley, Mark ^[4]

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1. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
2. Consult Kirby, Palm City, FL (United States)
3. US Department of Energy (USDOE), Washington DC (United States)
4. Univ. College, Dublin (Ireland)

This analysis evaluates several operational benefits of electricity storage, including load-leveling, spinning contingency reserves, and regulation reserves. Storage devices were simulated in a utility system in the western United States, and the operational costs of generation was compared to the same system without the added storage. This operational value of storage was estimated for devices of various sizes, providing different services, and with several sensitivities to fuel price and other factors. Overall, the results followed previous analyses that demonstrate relatively low value for load-leveling but greater value for provision of reserve services. The value was estimated by taking the difference in operational costs between cases with and without energy storage and represents the operational cost savings from deploying storage by a traditional vertically integrated utility. The analysis also estimated the potential revenues derived from a merchant storage plant in a restructured market, based on marginal system prices. Due to suppression of on-/off-peak price differentials and incomplete capture of system benefits (such as the cost of power plant starts), the revenue obtained by storage in a market setting appears to be substantially less than the net benefit provided to the system. This demonstrates some of the additional challenges for storage deployed in restructured energy markets.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1079719
• Report Number(s): NREL/TP--6A20-58465
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
25 ENERGY STORAGE
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
ENERGY STORAGE
Energy Analysis
GRID MODELING