Facility Scale Energy Storage

Presented at ACEEE Summer Study 2014

The growth of grid-connected renewable electricity sources and distributed generation is creating a rapidly emerging market for the deployment of energy storage technologies. To date, much of the focus has been on utility-scale projects. However, facility- and campus-scale energy storage show promise for managing grid impacts, allowing the continued expansion of reliance on solar photovoltaic, wind, and other distributed sources.

The paper’s authors investigated facility/campus scale energy storage for efficiency program administrators and recently completed a storage technology research report for an international consortium of utilities. This work has identified promising avenues for distributed storage. Currently, facility scale storage has three primary uses:

1. Power quality – The monitoring and regulation of voltage fluctuations, frequency disruptions, and harmonic distortions (computer networks and data centers).
2. Bridging power – Short-term power supply for critical demands, often used to cover time periods while emergency generators power up. Uninterruptible power supplies often perform these duties.
3. Energy management – Energy storage on a scale to support a facility/campus for extended periods of time. These systems can be responsive to utility demand programs and time-of-use rates to cut peak demand costs.

All three of these uses inform the development of strategies for utilizing distributed storage for the successful integration of expanding renewable energy generation.

This presentation presents the technical properties of current storage systems, including flywheel, compressed air, various battery technologies, etc. The technical and market barriers associated with distributed storage, along with proposed paths for resolving said barriers, are also discussed.

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