energy storage: the key to a smarter power grid - commercial energy storage systems

Energy grids around the world are working to cope with the surge in demand for electricity and the increasing volatility in the supply of renewable energy.
For example, the UK government is committed to strict carbon dioxide reduction targets.
These can only be met by a substantial increase in the use of electricity --
Currently accounts for about third of all energy consumption.
Renewable energy at the expense of oil and gas.
At present, the peak demand for the UK power grid is 60GW, but the government estimates that this number will increase by 6-by 2050-
With the surge in demand for electric cars and home heating, the pressure on people's lives has increased.
According to data from power services company S & C Electric, more towers and cables will be needed to meet this demand, with annual consumer bills totaling up to £ 1,000.
It's not just higher demand and cost, because in its essence renewable energy sources such as wind and solar are variable
When the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine, there is little or no electricity produced.
As Mike Wilks of Poyry Management Consulting said: "We need to have more flexibility in the energy mix.
"Countries around the world, especially those that invest heavily in renewable energy, face the same problem and have few solutions. Fast growth-
Action to generate electricity in order to fill the energy gap is an answer, but since most of these types of generators, such as diesel turbines, emit carbon dioxide, they have some counter-productive effects.
Another approach is to strengthen ties with other countries, but in a world where national energy security is on the political agenda, it is far from ideal.
Also, since many weather patterns are regional, this is not a successful solution either.
But there are two ways to help solve this critical problem, both of which should work, both of which attract huge amounts of money from governments and companies.
The first is energy storage.
Simply store the energy generated during low demand for use during high demand.
It sounds simple, as Anthony Price of the UK power storage network said, this is a common thing before 100.
Price said storage not only helps overcome the variable supply problem of renewable energy, but also enables the grid to operate more efficiently and economically.
This is simply because storage allows "the system to run with an average load rather than a peak load," he said ".
This will also end the absurdity of paying for wind turbine shutdown when demand is met.
The cost savings may be huge.
The Energy Futures Lab at Imperial College London estimates that energy storage technology can save £ 10 a year in the UK by 2050.
There are many technologies for storing energy --
From pumping water and electricity to powerful and efficient batteries-
It is being developed and implemented around the world, mainly in Germany, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom.
In fact, Lux Research estimates suggest that the value of the global energy storage industry could reach $ 100bn in the next few years.
A pilot project is underway in Painesville, Ohio, where Ashlawn Energy has installed a vanadium redox mobile battery that can discharge 1 mw of power for up to 8 hours.
"It's very clean, very safe, very long --
"It can power up to 1,000 households," said Bill Hagstrand of energy enterprise company Nortech . ".
The capacity of other installed battery storage items is 20 times that of Painesville, while pumping-
The power generation of hydropower projects can reach more than 1,500 MW.
In fact, a key benefit of energy storage is that different technologies can be implemented according to energy needs, from small, isolated rural communities to densely populated cities.
Another significant advantage is that it allows electricity to flow in two ways, so perfectly complements the final solution to increase the flexibility of the energy grid --demand-
Side management and smart grid.
This does not include a reduction in overall demand, but rather spreads the energy grid away to avoid the peak of this pressure.
Smart meters may have been introduced to end the expensive demand for manual meter reading, but they have grown far beyond that.
By constantly monitoring the energy usage of households and connecting directly to smart appliances, these meters will take over some of our decisions about energy use.
As Andrew Jones of S & C said: "When there are enough smart meters to know when to power off, the real change will come.
"For example, when electricity is needed elsewhere in the system, the meter can automatically turn off the refrigerator in a short period of time, or in order to balance the entire grid, decide when to turn on the washing machine.
This smart appliance has been widely used in Germany. And with two-
Such an important way of electricity flow is not only for energy storage, but also for small power
In the large-scale generation of electricity generated by households and enterprises to sell energy back to the grid, any equipment or equipment that can store power will be able to feed energy back to the grid.
Electric vehicle batteries, for example, become a potential energy source for the grid, not just for individual energy stores.
Although this technology is not yet available, smart grid is where we are going.
S & C says it can save us a fortune.
The company estimates that UK bills are expected to increase by £ 1,000 by 2050 to cover additional infrastructure costs to meet higher demand for electricity, instead, if the smart grid and energy storage are fully adopted, we will see an increase of 100.
But the story is not over.
Energy storage and smart grid means that power generation and distribution are no longer needed at the national level --
Now, every family and community is able to control their own power, thus controlling the price they pay and the security of the supply.
Pilot projects have been established in Germany, Italy, India, China, the United States and the United Kingdom.
The development of the State Grid is to take advantage of economies of scale and avoid excessive
Build expensive power generation capacity.
But small -.
Large-scale renewable energy and energy storage technologies, as well as declining power generation costs, mean that in some cases it makes more sense to generate and store electricity at a more localized level.
In fact, it's like most of the time in history.