Energy storage-enabled applications are poised to disrupt energy markets, according to Navigant Research.

In the next 3-5 years, the energy storage industry is positioned to truly scale and echo the explosive growth seen in the solar photovoltaic industry.

Incremental improvements in energy storage technologies, developments in regional regulatory and market drivers, and emerging business models are poised to make energy storage a growing and viable part of the electricity grid.

“New players will be able to offer a suite of solutions that promote connected homes and robust energy options,” says Anissa Dehamna, principal research analyst with Navigant Research. “Evolving business models call for utilities to become more agile and not only address the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity, but also focus more on grid services and develop customer-friendly solutions.”

The distributed energy resources sector on both the utility and customer sides of the meter will continue to create new opportunities for energy storage-enabled applications, according to the report. IT, telecommunications, and consumer product companies will continue to present a disruptive threat to utilities given their focus to date on energy and smart grid applications and their ability to extract value from data and customer relationships.

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Irvine Ranch Water District and Advanced Microgrid Solutions have teamed up to build the largest energy storage project for a public water agency in the country. And the project will not only benefit the water agency, but the whole region.

A NEW FRONTIER in the energy-water nexus is being forged in Southern California. Teaming up with Advanced Microgrid Solutions, Irvine Ranch Water District will be using an energy storage system to reduce its costs and help ease demand on the grid during peak hours.

The project is the largest of its kind at a public water agency in theU.S., and the 7 megawatt (MW) and 34 megawatt-hour (MWh) network will utilize Tesla batteries to store power at 11 of Irving Ranch Water District’s (IRWD) most energy-intensive points in its operations – including three water treatment plants, six pumping stations, a deep water aquifer treatment plant and a groundwater de-salter facility.

For IRWD, the largest water utility in Orange County, electric usage is the third largest expenditure in its budget, said Paul Cook, the agency’s general manager. “We move a lot of water, we treat a lot of water and that takes energy,” he said.

IRWD’s project signals a growing opportunity for water agencies to utilize energy storage, not just to reduce the costs of their own operations, but to play a larger role in helping to reduce peak demand on the grid, and thereby cut the need for more fossil-fuel consuming power plants.

Electric utilities have to deal with peak demand on the grid during certain times of the day (usually late afternoon), and customers such as IRWD often have to pay more for usage during those times.

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Gov. Jerry Brown, D-Calif., has signed into law four new bills that are expected to directly impact energy storage in California.

According to the California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA), the bills will collectively grow the behind-the-meter and utility-scale energy storage markets, create new clean energy jobs, reduce distributed energy resource interconnection challenges, and ensure that bulk energy storage is part of the states’s renewable energy future. The four pieces of legislation include the following:

• A.B.1637 increases the Self Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) funding by $249 million, which (CESA) says sends a clear market signal to industry stakeholders that behind-the-meter energy storage will play a key role in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and supporting the next-generation electric grid. Thanks to the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) recent SGIP reforms, 75% of the program budget going forward is now reserved for energy storage, adds CESA.

• A.B.2868 requires the CPUC to direct California’s three investor-owned utilities (IOUs) to accelerate the deployment of distributed energy storage by filing applications for new programs and investments of up to 500 MW. CESA says this bill directly increases the market for energy storage in California, as the 500 MW is in addition to the 1.325 GW procurement goal that California established in 2013.

• A.B.2861 authorizes the CPUC to create an objective, expedited dispute-resolution process for distributed, behind-the-meter energy resources attempting to establish an interconnection to an IOU’s electricity distribution network. CESA says this bill and resulting dispute resolution process will accelerate and reduce Rule 21 interconnection costs.

• A.B.33 directs the CPUC and California Energy Commission to evaluate and analyze the potential for all types of long-duration bulk energy storage, such as pumped hydro, to help integrate renewable generation into the grid. CESA says this bill ensures broader consideration of bulk energy storage’s unique capabilities and market roles.

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Only two U.S. states, California and Massachusetts, have set targets for energy storage deployments. Now New York City has joined them.

The city government unveiled a storage goal of 100 megawatt-hours by 2020 last week, along with an expanded solar target of 1,000 megawatts by 2030. Storage, with its capacity to integrate variable wind and solar power sources into the grid, is expected to play a critical role in meeting the city’s plans to cut greenhouse gases by 80 percent by 2050.

Storage experts told GTM that this is the first time a city has set such a target.

The city’s target is not a legally binding requirement like California’s. It’s more of an aspirational target with policies designed to make the process easier. 

“With a city-based target, they are also directly responsible for building codes and siting regulations, deployment strategies and even local taxes — and the city can also take steps to adapt all these rules and regulations to accelerate deployment,” wrote Matt Roberts, executive director of the Energy Storage Association, in an email. “The city is able to marshal its forces toward this collective goal, and can more easily adjust the goal based on the observed value delivered in the future.”

The New York City target applies to the full spectrum of storage, including electrochemical and thermal technologies. City officials are targeting storage as a way to reduce demand charges, defer distribution system upgrades, pre-cool buildings and shift solar power consumption.

For all the potential use cases, energy storage is still a bit player in the city’s energy system. A major motivation for the storage target is to make permitting easier, said Daniel Zarrilli, senior director of climate policy and programs with the city.

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Simple technique could see excess wind energy stored as heat and converted back to electricity using a steam turbine

Electricity storage and energy efficiency product manufacturer, Powervault, has collaborated with Solar Power Portal to conduct a survey of the electricity storage market in the UK.

The survey comprises 23 questions designed to better understand how installers and end users are adapting to electricity storage as a new technology for the home. It is also going to be used to understand how installers and end users would like the market to develop over the next 6 – 18 months.

You, as a respondent to the survey, will automatically be entered into a prize draw to win a 4kWh Lead Acid Powervault, which will help you use energy more efficiently, cut your electricity bills, and gain access to power during black outs.

Powervault’s Lead Acid product can reduce average domestic electricity bills by 35%, comes with a comprehensive 5 year warranty, and can be installed in the home within 1 hour.

The survey, which takes just 2 minutes to complete, can be found here.

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German manufacturer Stornetic aims to provide its flywheel storage system to wind power plants, it said today at the trade fair, WindEnergy, in Hamburg.

The company said its flywheel system, which turns electrical energy into rotational energy and stores it for later use, allows wind farm operators to balance output fluctuations over the long term.

Stornetic managing director Rainer vor dem Esche said: “Our storage machine EnWheel allows output peaks to be absorbed, thereby making the output of entire wind farms more even and predictable.”

He suggested flywheel energy storage will also be able to provide grid services in combination with wind power plants. “This is an ideal starting point for the challenges of the future,” said vor dem Esche.

Earlier this month, Stornetic announced its EnWheel system has been optimised as wayside storage for the public transportation industry, and particularly for train operators, which can store energy from braking trains at stations to help power them as they depart again.

Stornetic reckons its energy storage solution, designed for more than 100,000 load change cycles, can absorb load changes in the range of milliseconds, and is particularly suitable for applications in which many fast load changes are required.

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Commercial energy storage firm Green Charge installed more than 6.3 MWh of energy storage for San Diego’s Poway Unified School District.

The Green Charge energy storage system is now deployed at 12 campuses including elementary, middle and high schools and is expected to save the district more than $1.6 million over the 10-year term of the contract with Green Charge.

The Green Charge energy storage system and installation came at no cost to the district through Green Charge’s shared-savings model the Power Efficiency Agreement. Poway serves nearly 36,000 students in San Diego and is the third-largest school district in the county.

“Poway is using energy storage to cut utility costs and control spikes in our energy profile,” said Chad Koster, Director of Maintenance and Facilities for Poway Unified. “We are excited about this opportunity to partner with Green Charge. Any time we can find a way to reduce our operating costs without impacting our students is extraordinary. Installing this energy storage system will allow Poway Unified to put these savings right back in to our schools.”

“Poway is at the cutting edge of a new way of managing its energy costs,” said Vic Shao, CEO at Green Charge. “Energy storage allows Poway to reduce monthly electricity bills, help enhance the resiliency of the power grid and save money in the process.”

Green Charge provides customers an efficient energy storage platform that combines scalable cloud-based big data analytics software with battery storage systems, all with no capital outlay. Through the PEA, Green Charge provides a zero down cost solution and installs, owns and maintains all equipment.

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Only a few weeks after announcing one of the biggest energy storage projects ever, Tesla Energy won again a massive energy storage contract. The automaker’s energy division will supply ‘Powerpacks’ to its energy storage deployment partner, Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS), for a major new project: a 7 MW / 34 MWh network of battery systems to support water treatment facilities of Irvine Ranch Water District (IRWD).

The project is part of Tesla’s supply agreement with Advanced Microgrid Solutions signed last year. Under the contract, Tesla will supply AMS with up to 500 MWh of energy storage. It looks like this new project is the biggest between the two companies yet.

Previous projects include a 12 MWh with Cal State University, another one for several office buildings in Irvine, and more recently, a 1 MW Powerpack system inside Morgan Stanley’s San Francisco skyscraper.

In a press release today, AMS describes the new project as “the largest network of energy storage systems at a public water agency in the United States”. IRWD board president, Mary Aileen Matheis, commented on the announcement:

“Our agency has stepped forward with an innovative solution designed to protect customers while helping to reduce and better balance Southern California’s energy demands. This battery storage system – the largest in the nation – provides significant cost savings, enhanced grid stability and contributes to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and a smaller carbon footprint.”

All the logistics related to water treatment consume a lot of electricity in California. As AMS points out, according to the California Energy Commission, the transportation and treatment of water, treatment and disposal of wastewater, and the energy used to heat and consume water account for nearly 20 percent of the total electricity and 30 percent of non-power plant related natural gas consumed in California.

This new energy storage system should help reduce peak demand for the water treatment facilities and stabilize its energy consumption.

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Hawaiian Electric Co. has placed into service its first utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS), a 1 MW battery located at the Campbell Industrial Park generating station on Oahu.

The BESS is a joint demonstration project by the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute at the University of Hawaii and Hawaiian Electric. It also includes funding from the U.S. Office of Naval Research.

The demo will continue for two years – with a possible extension – to determine the battery’s safety, operating characteristics and effectiveness in helping to integrate more renewable energy on a circuit that already has a high level of solar, the utility says.

“To achieve our 100 percent renewable energy goal, we need to be able to smooth power flowing to the grid from variable renewable generation like wind and solar, as well as shift electricity generated when the sun is shining to when people use the most electricity in the evening,” said Shelee Kimura, Hawaiian Electric’s vice president for corporate planning and business development. “We are working on these capabilities both with larger, utility-scale systems like the BESS units and with ‘behind-the-meter’ batteries at business and residential customer sites – all working in unison to make clean power work.”

The centerpiece of the BESS project is an Altairnano 1 MW/250 kWh BESS, which is housed in a large shipping container. The BESS comprises batteries that store 250 kWh of energy and a corresponding inverter that changes DC to AC electricity so that the battery can export up to 1 MW of power to the grid.

The utility says the quickly responding battery can go from zero to full power output in a fraction of a second, as well as provide 250 kW of power for one hour or 1 MW of power for 15 minutes.

Also being tested are control algorithms that may be used in even larger batteries for power smoothing, voltage regulation and frequency.

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