Andy Marshall, Phd.
Last week, members of Landis+Gyr’s energy storage team joined other industry leaders at the Energy Storage North America (ENSA) Conference in San Diego, California. With event attendance of approximately 2,000 participants, ENSA provided Landis+Gyr the opportunity to meet with utilities and energy storage manufacturers, and to discuss new and innovative ways that energy storage is helping utilities solve many of their toughest challenges.
Here are a few key highlights:
- Widespread Utility Benefits of Energy Storage are Becoming More Widely Know, Tested, and Proven—Though still in its infancy as an industry, Energy Storage deployments are moving beyond proof-of-concept stage, and utilities are beginning to realize multiple benefits from early deployments. The notion that storage is only appropriate in conjunction with renewable projects is being dissolved by energy storage deployments for reliability, grid balancing, and peak management purposes. As these deployments continue to grow in number, the applications for storage, beyond renewables, will continue to be developed. Furthermore, business models are evolving to allow a single storage asset to capture multiple value streams that typically would accrue only to a distribution utility, behind the meter customer, or a wholesale market participant.
- Utilities are seeking additional benefits from investments, energy storage is an enabler. Scrutiny over investment decisions are leading utilities to more seriously investigate energy storage deployments as a component of their asset management strategies. The drive to avoid “like-for-like” asset investments without the additional benefits provided by energy storage has become a major consideration for many utilities.
- Integration of Storage into Distribution Planning—Energy storage will increase as utilities take the time to evaluate the benefits of energy storage into their grid planning strategies. Rather than simply utilizing storage in areas of constrained capacity, utilities can drive greater benefits from earlier consideration of storage projects as an integral component of distribution system planning.
- Locational Value of Energy Storage—The value of energy storage is highly dependent on where it is placed in a grid network. Grid analytics can guide planners and operators in identifying the optimal locations and sizing for energy storage projects to achieve maximum value. Further, advanced control systems can ensure that this value is retained during the operation of storage systems.
- Safety—Safety is a Growing Trend in the Storage Conversation—A theme echoed by most panelists was the need for the energy storage industry to better communicate safety aspects of energy storage projects to alleviate concerns with implementing new technologies.
Landis+Gyr has delivers some world some complex Smart Grid projects on 6 continents. Our energy Storage deployments for grid balancing, peak management, and renewable integration builds on this combined technical and project experience to deliver on-time, on-spec, and on-budget. To learn more click here.