Page 55 - Energize March 2022

TECHNICAL

Future-proofing energy storage

Ready for tomorrow, future-proof your investment

INFORMATION FROM WÄRTSILÄ

nergy storage has reached a turning storage projects in two significant markets: Kevin Payne, the CEO of Southern
point as a mainstream grid-reliability the United Kingdom and California, USA. California Edison, one of California’s
Eresource. The United States achieved With changing dynamics in these markets large investor-owned utilities affected
another year of record deployments in and others, storage owners will be by the Aliso Canyon crisis, added that
2016, and forecasts show continued rapid successful only if they future-proof their the commercial delivery of Li-ion battery
expansion of the energy storage industry. energy storage investments. storage in response to the crisis “validates
At the same time, the investment case for Energy storage has become a that energy storage can be part of the
storage is still difficult due to risks of limited mainstream grid planning tool in recent energy mix now.”
technology track record and business years. In late 2015, the Aliso Canyon In addition to playing a high-profile
cases that rely on uncertain revenues. natural-gas storage facility in Southern role in the Aliso Canyon crisis, energy
Due to rapidly changing grid dynamics and California experienced a significant leak storage systems (ESS) reached critical
the long life required of storage assets, that put the grid at risk of power outages. scale in grid deployments. For this article,
energy storage owners must future-proof In 2016, storage industry leaders installed we define ESS to include all forms of
their investments today. To do it, storage three large lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery stationary battery storage, including
developers must employ technology and systems, totalling 70 MW / 280 MWh, Li-ion and other electrochemical and
project engineering specifically designed to mitigate the power capacity shortage flow batteries. We exclude large-scale
for flexibility. Future-proofing also requires caused by the Aliso Canyon leak. infrastructure storage, such as pumped
commercial agreements and analytical After the projects were completed, hydro and compressed air. This convention
expertise to optimise the operational value California Public Utilities Commissioner is followed by all the figures cited in this
of energy storage. Michael Picker said, “I was stunned at paper unless explicitly defined otherwise.
In this article, Wärtsilä Energy Storage the ability of batteries and the battery Platts reported that, as of Q2 2017, the
and Optimisation (ES&O) lays out the industry’s ability to meet our needs. This installed base of ESS in the United States
requirements involved in future-proofing was something I didn’t expect to see until was 565,5 MW, and approximately one
energy storage. We then describe our 2020. Here it is in 2017, and it’s already in third of the capacity was deployed in the
approach to future-proofing energy the ground.” past year.

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