Timescales of energy storage needed for reducing renewable energy curtailment

Journal Article · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2019 · Renewable Energy

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2018.06.079· OSTI ID:1468330

Denholm, Paul; Mai, Trieu

Integrating large amounts of variable generation (VG) resources such as wind and solar into a region's power grid without causing significant VG curtailment will likely require increased system flexibility via changing grid operation and deploying enabling technologies such as energy storage. This article analyzes the storage duration required to reduce VG curtailment under high-VG scenarios. The three analysis scenarios assume VG provides 55% of the electricity demand in the largely isolated Electricity Reliability Council of Texas grid system in 2050, with three different proportions of wind and solar generation. Across the three scenarios, 11%-16% of VG energy is curtailed without storage due to system-generation constraints. When 8.5 GW of storage capacity with 4 h of duration are added, curtailment is reduced to 8%-10% of VG. Additional storage duration further reduces curtailment, but with rapidly diminishing returns. At least half the potential avoided-curtailment benefits are realized with 8 h of storage, and the first 4 h provide the largest benefit. At VG penetrations up to 55%, there appears to be little incremental benefit in deploying very-long-duration or seasonal storage.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Wind and Water Technologies Office (EE-4W)
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1468330
• Report Number(s): NREL/JA-6A20-71657
• Journal Information: Renewable Energy, Journal Name: Renewable Energy Journal Issue: C Vol. 130; ISSN 0960-1481
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

25 ENERGY STORAGE
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
curtailment
energy storage
photovoltaic
solar
variable generation
wind