Some advice from the experts at Energy Insights on strategic considerations in bringing these new technologies to market:
• Investigate the feasibility of using the same storage unit to satisfy multiple applications. Energy storage technologies are, for the most part, too expensive to justify if they are used only to satisfy one function. Pursuing initiatives that allow storage units to serve multiple purposes (e.g., frequency regulation, T&D investment deferral, and variable RE integration) can produce additional revenue streams as well as cost savings.
• Ensure that all energy storage project stakeholders clearly understand their respective roles, cost shares, and potential rewards. The complexity of some storage projects, which aim to accomplish multiple goals for a variety of players, demands that all parties agree to their share of the risks and the rewards during the early stages of the projects’ financial planning.
• Implement storage projects as part of a larger intelligent grid build-out strategy. Contemporaneous development of the different pieces of the intelligent grid (e.g., advanced metering infrastructure, energy storage, and clean generation technologies) will be required to update the nation’s 20th century T&D system and comply with increasingly stringent RE and carbon emissions reductions mandates. Storage with smart grid functionality can play a significant role in firming variable renewable resources and, in turn, increase both their financial value and level of grid integration.
• Advocate stable and sensible policy support. Though some regulators are already implementing rules required for the widespread adoption of energy storage, educational outreach to policymakers can only help accelerate the development of additional stipulations and classifications integral to the technology’s development.
• Monitor and contribute to demonstration and knowledge sharing efforts. Various utilities in different regions are experimenting with advanced energy storage technologies to satisfy a variety of applications. Open communication with other energy companies and industry stakeholders detailing pilot results and challenges can help spur understanding and greater usage. Both the Electricity Storage Association (ESA) and the Energy Storage Council (ESC) trade groups promote the research, development, and commercialization of energy storage technologies. Government-funded agencies with the Department of Energy, such as Sandia National Laboratories, are also involved in numerous demonstration efforts.
• Emphasize product quality to vendors. Underdeveloped products that fail to live up to expectations can have a harmful effect on the entire emerging energy storage industry, perhaps reinforcing institutional biases.
From “Best Practices: Case Studies of Advanced Electrical Energy Storage System Deployment,” by Energy Insights, an arm of global market intelligence and advisory firm IDC in Framingham, MA. Reprinted with permission.