In general, energy storage systems can provide value to the energy system by reducing its total system cost; and reducing risk for any investment and operation. This paper discusses total system cost reduction in an idealised model without considering risks.
Storage is indispensable to the green energy revolution. The most abundant sources of renewable energy today are only intermittently available and need a steady, stored supply to smooth out these fluctuations. Energy storage technologies are also the key to lowering energy costs and integrating more renewable power into our grids, fast.
In most energy systems models, reliability and sustainability are forced by constraints, and if energy demand is exogenous, this leaves cost as the main metric for economic value. Traditional ways to improve storage technologies are to reduce their costs; however, the cheapest energy storage is not always the most valuable in energy systems.
Regardless of the low or high LCOS indication, the ‘variable EP scenario’ shows that all included energy storage technologies are valuable. As noted earlier, we define a technology as valuable if it reduces the total system costs. This is the case if a technology is part of an optimised energy system.
It shows that the introduction of optimised sizing can lead to electricity bill savings of roughly half a cent, with the H2 -Hub scenario contributing only to negligible more savings. As a result, increasing design freedom of energy storage can be desirable for a cheaper electricity system and should be considered while designing technology.
How many benefits can be delivered by energy storage depends, among others, on how future technology will be designed. Consequently, research and development (R&D) must evaluate the techno-economic design of energy storage systems to be most beneficial. A traditional technology evaluation approach is to reduce the cost of its devices [ 4 ].