Houston/Washington D.C.: The United States energy storage sector set a capacity record in Q4 2019, deploying 186.4 megawatts and 364.2 megawatt-hours of storage, Wood Mackenzie reported March 10.
According to Wood Mackenzie and the U.S. Energy Storage Association’s (ESA) latest US Energy Storage Monitor report, Q4 2019 marks the largest-ever quarter for storage deployments across all US market segments.
The front-of-the-meter (FTM) market spiked 160% in quarter-over-quarter growth, with 103.8 MW deployed in Q4 2019. The FTM market accounted for 56% of quarterly deployments, in MW terms, after two consecutive quarters in which it made up less than 50%.
On a MWh basis, the FTM storage sector grew by 44% quarter-over-quarter, with the implied reduction in average duration, due mainly to new projects in PJM participating in Reg D (fast regulation) with 1-hour duration batteries.
The market is expected to expand from an annual deployment of 523 MW in 2019 to 7.3 GW in 2025. Additionally, the market’s total size will surge from $712 million in 2019 to $4.2 billion in 2021 and reach $7.2 billion by 2025. This growth will be largely be driven by utility procurements, the analysts project.
The range of services provided include grid-level storage, delivering ancillary services in territories including the New England ISO system operator service area, PJM Interconnection, Texas' ERCOT, CAISO in California and others, Energy Storage News explains. Meanwhile, storage paired with solar is on the increase, as is the deployment of energy storage in lieu of more expensive transmission and distribution network upgrades.