Specifically, with an expected growth rate of 0, when the volatility rises from 0.1 to 0.2, the critical value of the investment in energy storage technology rises from 0.0757 USD/kWh to 0.1019 USD/kWh, which is more pronounced. In addition, the value of the investment option also rises from 72.8 USD to 147.7 USD, which is also more apparent.
Additionally, the investment threshold is significantly lower under the single strategy than it is under the continuous strategy. Therefore, direct investment in future energy storage technologies is the best choice when new technologies are already available.
Although electricity storage technologies could provide useful flexibility to modern power systems with substantial shares of power generation from intermittent renewables, investment opportunities and their profitability have remained ambiguous.
Recent deployments of storage capacity confirm the trend for improved investment conditions (U.S. Department of Energy, 2020). For instance, the Imperial Irrigation District in El Centro, California, installed 30 MW of battery storage for Frequency containment, Schedule flexibility, and Black start energy in 2017.
Where a profitable application of energy storage requires saving of costs or deferral of investments, direct mechanisms, such as subsidies and rebates, will be effective. For applications dependent on price arbitrage, the existence and access to variable market prices are essential.
Investment in energy storage can enable them to meet the contracted amount of electricity more accurately and avoid penalties charged for deviations. Revenue streams are decisive to distinguish business models when one application applies to the same market role multiple times.