According to foreign media reports, a survey released by the US Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) recently showed that states in the United States are strengthening the construction and deployment of grid-scale battery energy storage systems.
The report pointed out that the progress of energy storage deployment indicates that the US power sector will face tremendous changes. The report also details new energy storage systems and expanded energy storage projects in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Florida, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Nevada, Texas, and Vermont.
Dennis Wamsted, an analyst at the US Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), said recent surveys on the deployment of grid-scale energy storage systems indicate that utility companies will shut down more natural gas and coal-fired power plants, which are renewable sources of energy. The development brings benefits. The increase in the deployment of energy storage systems is likely to be the beginning of this trend.
Wamsted said, “We will face even more imminent changes. In many of the examples we studied, each project is largely driven by value streams: cuts in transmission costs, provides grid resiliency, provides peak power, and allows for advances. Closing fossil fuel power plants, etc. Although the number of energy storage systems deployed is still small in absolute terms, it can now be applied to more occasions, and these changes are now taking place."
The report details the ways in which dozens of power companies can save money on power storage technology and convenience.
The deployment of solar + energy storage projects can accelerate the phase-out of coal and natural gas power plants that are primarily used for peak or seasonal demand. For example, NVEnergy decided to shut down its NorthValmy coal-fired power plant in Nevada, and Florida's power and lighting company plans to shut down two old gas-fired power plants in Florida.
Battery energy storage systems can be used to meet peak system demand as Southern California Edison (SCE) is using an energy storage system to replace two natural gas peaking power plants in California.
Battery energy storage systems can also be used to provide stable renewable energy, providing utilities with an important opportunity to increase power system flexibility and reduce costs, as many other projects mentioned in the report.
Battery energy storage systems enable more residential solar power systems to be installed on distribution lines without the need for potentially expensive and time-consuming power system upgrades, such as existing residential solar power projects in Vermont and New Hampshire plans to implement.
Battery energy storage systems can be used to improve the economics of existing grid-scale solar power installations, such as a solar-powered facility in Texas that is being deployed with a battery energy storage system.
Wamsted added that economies of scale will help increase the deployment of grid-scale battery energy storage systems, and utilities are increasingly recognizing the economics of this business case.
“Developers and utilities are likely to stack these advantages together, making the energy storage system more economically competitive,” he said.
