What's old is new again- Revisiting energy storage

By Dorothy Davis

The electrical grid is a complex network connecting thousands of power sources with millions of consumers all across the U.S. While producing enough power to supply the energy needs of a nation is an extremely difficult task, just as challenging, if not more so, is the need to balance supply and demand on the grid.

Traditionally, the key approach to addressing this issue has been a centralized one, with power generators adjusting daily production based on anticipated levels of demand. But as the supply and demand picture continues to become more complex, emphasis is beginning to shift again toward energy storage - systems that can hold excess electricity until it is needed and then responsively release it into the grid.

The utilization of energy storage in the U.S. is far from new. A report by the Energy Storage Council (ESC) highlights power generators in the 70’s and 80’s recognized the potential of these technologies - creating a base of large-scale storage facilities that accounted for nearly 3 percent of the nation’s electric capacity by the early 90’s. However, the industry suffered major setbacks under the pressures of deregulation causing development to stall.

In the last decade energy storage technologies have enjoyed a resurgence spurred primarily by the burgeoning electric vehicle industry and private investment. Utilities and investors are again recognizing the broad potential benefits of energy storage technologies for power generators as they strive to meet demand.

The potential economic impacts of energy storage are fairly widespread, but the most basic idea is that these technologies will benefit utilities by maximizing power generation and conservation through reliability. Instability can lead to higher electric costs both because of inefficiencies at the generation level and the need for greater maintenance at lower levels.

The prospective benefits of energy storage are also gaining government attention and support. Most recently, the U.S. Department of Energy announced $43 million in funding from its Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) for 19 new projects aimed at developing energy storage technologies.

Energy storage also offers a more cost effective solution for intermittent renewable energy sources like solar and wind, which are incapable of scaling generation up or down in response to changing demand.

At the same time, energy storage also has the potential to allow for more consistent use of coal-fired power plants, which have difficulty adjusting their output based on demand.

Energy storage holds the potential to address many of the key challenges facing the electric power industry. By raising the overall capacity and flexibility of energy storage helps meet the needs of a high demand modern grid by optimizing existing assets.

With such wide ranging benefits, growing the energy storage sector is certain to open up new and innovative opportunities for the electric power market.

Progress as promised...

By Hilton Price

Growing up, I was a good kid. I listened to my elders, asked before doing anything crazy, and pretty much played by the rules. My cousin Steve, not so much. He was a bit of a problem child. He liked mischief, rarely asked permission, and often found himself on the wrong end of a spanking… or worse.

Steve wasn’t a bad kid. He just had trouble staying on task. This made it harder for him even as he got older, and learned some discipline, because everyone around him still thought of Steve as a bad egg. By the time he was entering high school, he was doing well in class, excelling at extra-curricular activities, and becoming a responsible and thoughtful young man. But the stigma from his childhood still stuck around, leading to some people judging him incorrectly for much of his young adult life.

When Hurricane Isaac started heading toward the Gulf of Mexico this summer, the companies working in the region’s deepwater oil fields took notice. They sent crews away, battened down the hatches, and prepared for the storm. And after the winds and rains had died down, they didn’t rush back to the platforms and start flipping on each switch.

The companies working in the gulf began a series of checks to make sure the equipment was able to safely be restarted before production began again in the Gulf. No company rushed back into business, because no company dared risk overlooking some minor damage from the storm that could grow exponentially once the platform was operating again.

At Power-Gen International 2011’s keynote address, reshaping the image of the oil industry was touted as an important goal for the future. Finding lots and lots of oil and using it to power the world was probably also covered, but the “image reshaping” really stuck in my head. I absolutely agree that this industry should be shouting its best practices to the world, especially when they are followed diligently.

But when the companies returned to the Gulf after Isaac, the public knew little to nothing about the extensive checks underway before production began. I know it’s typically the bad news that gets attention, and “Companies slowly checking everything in the Gulf” is a pretty boring headline, but I also remember a young man I knew growing up who also needed all the good P.R. he could get.

To my new eyes on an old industry, the oil industry and my young cousin Steve have something very important in common. Both need to have their successes celebrated twice as loud as their failures, to ensure those watching understand they are doing good work.

The public’s poor perception of the oil industry isn’t without some cause, but it is certainly overkill. Companies within the industry are constantly working to ensure oil is discovered, extracted, and processed in the most safe, secure, and reliable way possible. The people working in those companies live on this planet too, and are trying to minimize impact on Earth while utilizing its resources. These are good and important companies, and this is (overall) a good industry. But there is a lot of bad press, and overcoming it means publicizing every positive moment.

Just as Steve needed his accomplishments touted twice as loud as his failures, to show his progress and promise, so should the industry be ensuring the good news gets out. It’s the best way to reshape an image, allowing companies to grow, much like my cousin, into even more productive and valuable members of society.