Fueled by increased interest in grid service applications like time-of-use (TOU) shifting, self-consumption and backup power, the U.S. market for energy storage doubled in 2018 and is expected to double again by the end of the year. Of the 777 MWh of energy storage deployed in the United States in 2018 (which was an 80% growth over 2017 installs), 47% came from front-of-the-meter (FTM) projects, or those built and operated by utilities. Behind-the-meter (BTM) storage systems, including residential, accounted for the other 53% of installations, and a report from Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables and the Energy Storage Association (ESA) predicts BTM storage to account for more than half of the annual market in dollar terms by 2021 as residential storage takes off. The groups expect 2019 to close with 1,681 MWh of energy storage deployed in the United States, largely coupled with solar systems.

Zachary Cox, VP of operations at U.S. Battery Manufacturing, said he sees FTM projects becoming the predominant energy storage application in the future.

“I imagine a system where homes and businesses generate solar power during the day to charge utility-owned storage and then consume from that storage at night,” he said. “I still envision residential and commercial behind-the-meter storage; however, I think that the upfront costs of these systems will push utility providers to provide the storage.”

Zinc-air and lithium battery provider NantEnergy also sees growth potential in the larger installation markets.

“Until the residential systems can pay for themselves in savings they generate, it’s always going to be a niche driven by consumers who are concerned about outage protection,” said Carl Mansfield, VP of system solutions for NantEnergy. “Our vision for the U.S. is fairly widespread deployment of storage across buildings on the distribution system with many applications ranging from energy saving to critical backup to powered emergency response centers.”

Cost is still a determining factor for many battery purchases, and supply shortages have held back those who have the capital to invest in energy storage. EnergySage found in its latest “Solar Installer Survey” that around 56% of solar-plus-storage customers specifically request Tesla Powerwall solutions while only 12% of solar installers actually carry the products. Tesla, which has prioritized its electric vehicle production, has been notorious for product availability issues, and South Korean storage incentives led to most competing storage brands to supply product there first. Several top battery manufacturers announced new plants in an effort to increase production. As battery supply rebounds, system pricing should level out and provide more predictability to customers looking to add on storage.

Aggreko partnered with National Grid U.S. to complete the installation of a 2MW/3.8MWh battery storage system in Pulaski, New York.

The system, which is the first of its kind in National Grid’s U.S. service area, will provide supplementary electricity load relief to the utility’s customers at peak times, enhancing grid stability in the upstate New York area.

The system has been designed by Aggreko to handle 2 MW of customer demand, which is the equivalent of powering about 1,600 homes for up to two hours.

The project will allow National Grid to maintain grid stability and continue working toward achieving a clean energy future for New York, as well as attaining broader state-wide goals. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has pledged to deploy 1,500 MW of energy storage by 2025.

The energy storage resource is expected to help lower energy costs for National Grid’s customers in upstate New York, increasing the reliability of the grid and modernizing its distribution network, while deferring infrastructure and system upgrades.

The fact that the company is able to defer adding extra capacity to its energy network also lessens the company’s emissions over the lifetime of the storage system.

In other storage news, Duke Energy has just announced it’s largest energy storage site in Florida, set to help balance the state’s grid. Here’s the story.

US utility Duke Energy has announced the deployment of its largest energy storage project in Florida.

The utility is developing 22MW of energy storage to improve overall reliability and support critical services during power outages.

The project:

Will enhance grid operations
Increase efficiencies and improve customer services to the utility’s approximately 1.8 million consumers in Florida
Enhance grid resiliency during storms
Enable the utility to offer new multiple customer and electric system benefits such as balancing energy demand, managing intermittent resources, increasing energy security and deferring traditional power grid upgrades
Reduce consumer energy bills
The 22MW energy storage project includes:

A 11MW Trenton lithium-based battery facility to be located 30 miles west of Gainesville in Gilchrist County.
A 5.5MW Cape San Blas lithium-based battery facility to be located approximately 40 miles southeast of Panama City in Gulf County.
A 5.5MW Jennings lithium-based battery facility, 1.5 miles south of the Florida-Georgia border in Hamilton County.
The energy storage systems will be operational by the end of 2020.

The project is part of $1 billion in investment by Duke Energy Florida towards expanding its renewable energy and energy storage portfolios through 2022.

The utility is using the funding to acquire a total of 700 MW of cost-effective solar power facilities and 50 MW of battery storage.

India is looking at gravity-based energy storage to take advantage of the technology’s short response times and flexibility when it comes to grid integration of clean energy sources.

With the South Asian nation’s increasing penetration of renewable energy onto the grid, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has been compelled to look at energy storage proposals via a research programme. The programme covers a spectrum of technologies, in the knowledge that different storage products will be more suitable to different applications and that the demands on any single storage system can vary across locations.

In a notice describing gravity-based storage, MNRE stated: “In such systems, electricity is used to lift mass to higher elevation thereby storing potential energy and lowering this mass discharges the energy which can again be converted to electricity. Globally, a number of entities are working in this segment.”

Energy-Storage.news is as aware of at least two companies who are providing such storage systems. Swiss company Energy Vault has made its gravity-based technology (pictured above) commercially available and Indian energy giant Tata Power expected to be the first customer. Meanwhile, a UK-based company, known as Gravitricity, also offers such technology, which it describes on its website as a huge “clock weight” with a cylindrical weight of up to 3,000 tonnes suspended in a deep shaft by a number of cables.

MNRE has now invited preliminary project proposals on ‘Gravity Storage’, that will be examined by a committee before shortlisted proposals are then invited to submit a final proposal.

The stated aim of the invitation is “to develop state of the art technical know-how and develop a prototype system that has commercialisation potential in the short term.”

Aggreko partnered with National Grid U.S. to complete the installation of a 2MW/3.8MWh battery storage system in Pulaski, New York. 

The system, which is the first of its kind in National Grid’s U.S. service area, will provide supplementary electricity load relief to the utility’s customers at peak times, enhancing grid stability in the upstate New York area.

The system has been designed by Aggreko to handle 2 MW of customer demand, which is the equivalent of powering about 1,600 homes for up to two hours. 

The project will allow National Grid to maintain grid stability and continue working toward achieving a clean energy future for New York, as well as attaining broader state-wide goals. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has pledged to deploy 1,500 MW of energy storage by 2025.

The energy storage resource is expected to help lower energy costs for National Grid’s customers in upstate New York, increasing the reliability of the grid and modernizing its distribution network, while deferring infrastructure and system upgrades. 

The fact that the company is able to defer adding extra capacity to its energy network also lessens the company’s emissions over the lifetime of the storage system.

The growth of battery storage in the power sector has attracted a great deal of attention in the industry and media. Much of that attention focuses on utility-scale batteries and on batteries for commercial and industrial customers. While these larger batteries are critical segments of the energy-storage market, the rapid growth of residential energy storage is outpacing expectations, and these household systems will likely become important assets sooner than many expect. The growth trajectory and potential value of these household systems to customers and the power grid warrants a closer look.

During the past four years, annual installations of residential energy-storage systems in the U.S. have jumped from 2.25 MWh in 2014 to 185 MWh in 2018. Many consumers clearly want the added control, reliability, and resilience that comes from having a battery at home. As a result, many communities may soon have an unexpected resource, a network of home-based batteries that residential customers have already paid for but are not using every day. What would it take to enable residential energy storage to help local utilities make power grids more cost-effective, reliable, resilient, and safe?

Putting Energy Storage Resources to Work

Grids in many regions are under increasing strain. Grid assets are aging. Intermittent sources of renewable energy generate increasing amounts of power, requiring more load balancing. The incidence of severe weather is rising. These trends are worsening bottlenecks and choke points in the energy delivery system, resulting in higher costs and threatening to increase local power outages.

Utilities are taking action to increase grid reliability and resilience. Some utilities already administer so-called demand-response programs that encourage customers to reduce power consumption during peak demand periods. Likewise, utilities are pursuing comprehensive grid-modernization programs to increase capacity and harden the grid system. And some utilities are investing heavily in utility-scale energy-storage solutions, putting big batteries next to power plants and transmission lines, and in substations to reduce costs and improve reliability.

As more customers invest in “behind-the-meter” residential energy-storage systems, utilities will gain another potential lever for balancing energy demand and supply. Residential batteries could be linked together and dispatched to deliver grid support services, much as utilities use demand-response programs and ancillary services resources today. Because the batteries are already in place, the marginal cost of dispatching residential energy-storage resources could be quite low. This could help utilities avoid more-costly remedies such as firing up inefficient peaking plants or building extra grid infrastructure that may only be used infrequently.

On June 13-14, the 2019 Australian Energy Storage Conference and Exhibition will draw together some of the most influential forces in the energy storage space to discuss industry trends, share strategies and get a hands-on look at the sector’s newest technology and innovations.

Energy system providers, utilities, all levels of government, commercial companies and other top energy storage players will be there to take advantage of the critical knowledge-sharing and networking opportunities.

This year’s theme, Energy Storage – The Great Enabler, will provide a guiding force behind the event’s range of activities, which include:

Thought-leading presentations
Expert panel discussions
Free professional development workshops
Targeted topic streams
And much more
The theme recognises the ability of energy storage to enable high penetration of renewable energy and perform a wide range of grid and microgrid support services, allowing for more efficient and resilient energy systems.

Attendees are invited to explore real, financially-viable case studies and solutions for utility, commercial, off-grid, micro-grid and residential applications.

Network and explore
Beyond the presentations and group discussions, attendees will have various opportunities to catch up with colleagues in the field and form new relationships during AES 2019’s social events.

In addition to lunch and tea breaks scheduled throughout each day, participants can unwind at the end of day one with a complimentary networking drinks function on the exhibition floor. Delegates can then continue the evening with a dinner cruise around Sydney Harbour, which will feature five-star food and entertainment along with spectacular views of Sydney’s iconic Vivid Festival.

Attendees will also have the option of registering for one of three site tours that will take place the day before the conference on Wednesday 12 June. The Ecoult Battery Laboratory, Food Bank’s TES Installation and the Alexandra Canal Depot will each offer a behind-the-scenes look at some of Australia’s most innovative and impactful energy storage technologies, granting participants practical knowledge to take back to their own organisations.

Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) and Magnum Development, the owner of a large and geographically rare underground salt dome in Utah, have teamed to develop a massive project that could store up 1,000 MW of renewable energy year-round and provide it to variability-challenged Western power markets.

The companies this week signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop the $1 billion Advanced Clean Energy Storage (ACES) project in Millard, in central Utah, MHPS CEO Paul Browning told POWER on May 30. The project has the backing of Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R), who lauded the project for its potential to “put Utah on the map as the epicenter of utility-scale storage for the Western U.S.”

ACES will comprise a series of facilities above and within the Magnum Salt Dome, a geologic formation that was tectonically developed from a bedded salt deposit, and which seismic mapping suggests measures at least one mile thick and about three miles wide. Magnum has proposed future facilities at the site that could form a “Western Energy Hub”—essentially a series of mined caverns capable of storing natural gas, compressed air, and liquid energy products underground.

“With five salt caverns already in operation for liquid fuels storage, Magnum is continuing to develop compressed air energy storage (CAES) and renewable hydrogen storage options,” the company said in a statement Thursday. “Strategically located adjacent to the Intermountain Power Project, the Magnum site is positioned to integrate seamlessly with the Western U.S. power grid utilizing existing infrastructure,” it noted.

MHPS, meanwhile, is looking to build facilities to convert renewable power from Western power markets into renewable hydrogen, which would then be combusted at a 600-MW JAC-series combined cycle power plant it plans to build with a partner above ground at ACES. ACES will also be outfitted to harness CAES stored at the caverns, and MHPS plans to supplement the facility with solid oxide fuel cells and large-scale flow batteries, to ensure it can store energy 24/7, 365-day and flexibly dispatch as much as 1,000 MW at grid-scale to balance variability from renewables that are increasingly flooding Western markets.

Browning told POWER that the companies plans to build an initial 250-MW phase of underground storage by 2025. The project is currently in the development phase, and MHPS still needs to find partners to build the power plant, as well as suppliers for the solid oxide and flow battery technology.

Mitsubishi is leading an ambitious project to develop what it claims will be the world’s largest energy storage project.

The venture will take advantage of salt caverns owned by Magnum Development.

While lithium-based technology dominates the utility-scale battery market, the Advanced Clean Energy Storage (ACES) project will look to develop four competing technologies with no lithium in sight. It will have the equivalent power rating of 1GW. The energy storage capacity figure, in GWh, has not been provided. A 100MW system has been installed in the UAE with similar sized projects in Australia and China also.

The hydrogen storage element of the scheme is part of a broader strategy by Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS). The company has developed a gas turbine for power plants that can operate efficiently with a mixture of natural gas and hydrogen. It has sketched out a technology roadmap that will eventually see a gas turbine using exclusively hydrogen. If the electrolysis used to create the hydrogen is powered by renewables, then that hydrogen can be considered a renewable energy source.

“In California and other states in the western United States, which will soon have retired all of their coal-fired power generation, we need the next step in decarbonization. Mixing natural gas and storage, and eventually using 100% renewable storage, is that next step,” said Paul Browning, president and CEO of MHPS Americas. “When we add gas turbines powered with renewable hydrogen to a hydrogen storage salt-dome, we have a solution that stores and generates electricity with zero carbon emissions.”

The site is adjacent to the Intermountain Power Project which Magnum says will give it access to a host f regional electricity connections. At the planned scale, the storage site will be able to serve 150,000 U.S. households with no seasonal variation.