What is Compressed Air Energy Storage Technology? This is a form of large scale energy storage technology that is currently attracting the interest of technologists and researchers around the world. Called CAES (more…)
Tag: Grid Level Storage
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Pumped Hydroelectric Energy Storage Technology
Pumped Hydroelectric Energy Storage (PHES) is a form of energy storage technique that is based on the storage of a large amount of water at a high elevation. This is accomplished with two water reservoirs (artificial lake or sea) which are at two different elevations (pressure heads), by pumping water from the lower elevation to the higher elevation.
Water in the upper reservoir will be stored until it is needed, holding enough water for up to several days’ worth of electrical energy. When needed, the stored water is released from the upper reservoir and is used to drive hydro/water turbines, which intern drive electric generators to generate electricity.
The traditional application of PHES is arbitrage, where low-cost or off-peak electric power is used to run pumps, to pump the water from the lower reservoir to the upper reservoir and the stored water is released to produce electric power during periods of high electrical demand at which time the cost of electric energy is much higher.
Although the losses of the pumping process make the plant a net consumer of energy overall, the system increases revenue by selling more electricity during periods of peak demand, when electricity prices are highest. Pumped storage is the largest-capacity form of grid energy storage now available.
A more suitable application for this type of energy storage system is when it is used in conjunction with intermittent renewable energy resources such as wind and solar farms to optimize the availability of wind and solar power. See the article Grid level Energy Storage for more on large-scale energy storage systems.
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Grid Level Energy Storage
Have you been wondering, like many, what is Grid Energy Storage and why is there so much talk about large-scale energy storage? Well, grid-level energy storage systems (ESS) are large-scale facilities used to store energy in one form or the other (electrical, chemical, potential, gravitational, etc) within an electric power grid.
Energy is stored during times when production exceeds consumption and the stored energy is used at times when consumption exceeds production. In this way, electricity production need not be drastically ramped up and down to meet momentary consumption – instead, production is maintained at a more constant level. This has the advantage that fuel-based power plants (i.e. coal, oil, gas) can be more efficiently and easily operated at constant production levels.
Modern electric grid
In particular, the use of grid-connected intermittent energy sources such as solar (photovoltaic) and wind can benefit from grid-level energy storage. These energy sources are by nature unpredictable – meaning that the amount of electrical energy they produce varies over time and depends heavily on random factors such as the weather. In an electric power grid without energy storage, energy sources that rely on the energy stored within fuels (coal, oil, gas) must be ramped up and down to match the rise and fall of energy production from intermittent energy sources. Thus, grid energy storage is one method that the operator of an electric power grid can use to optimize energy production from intermittent renewable energy resources.
Grid Energy Storage ApplicationThere are several methods that are currently being pursued as a possible means of grid energy storage. Currently, the list includes:
- Pumped Hydroelectric Energy Storage
- Compressed Air Energy Storage
- Batteries
- Hydrogen
- Super Capacitor
- Flywheel
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