ENERGY STORAGE
For
Demand Savings, Grid Upgrade Cost Reductions or Addition to your Solar Asset
It’s time for the GRID to step into the twentieth century and battery storage is the answer. Battery storage is a technology that enables power system operators and utilities to store energy for later use. At the most basic level this energy is stored when energy is cheap and plentiful and discharged at times when it is more expensive. The electric grid is a complex system where power supply and demand must be equal at any given moment. Energy Storage plays an important role in the balancing act and helps make the grid more flexible.
The current utility grid has always managed energy supply costs based on overall demand and must average costs on your electricity bill based on average consumption. This means consumers can actually pay for energy which they never use in the form of higher rates and demand charges. Now, there are options to store energy by capturing electricity produced by both renewable and nonrenewable resources and storing it for later release on demand. At times of low demand, excess energy can be stored for later use in times of high demand, when the supply is lower.
This approach is very effective with renewable generation. Solar generates smaller amounts of power in the absence of sunshine, but often produces more energy than you can use during sunny days. A solid energy storage solution balances the supply to provide a more reliable supply that matches demand, thereby also requiring consumers to pay for only what they actually use.
Large Scale Energy Customers & Utilities
Large scale electricity customers in California, New York and Massachusetts can save significant money with an energy storage system. Key avoided cost benefits a typical application in the Commercial and Industrial sector include:
Time of Use Arbitrage
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Time of Use hedging is the distribution of “cheap electricity” that is stored in a battery when utility rates are otherwise at their highest, in order to achieve maximum energy savings. This is a buy-low, sell-high approach and is reliant upon sufficiently large price differentials between peak and off peak periods for the battery to deliver value from “shifting” the load. This benefit is particularly effective in California and the Con Edison utility area of New York.
Demand Response Management
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Demand is billed based on the greatest amount of power a customer ever pulls from the grid in a given period. In many markets, demand charges make up anywhere from 30 to 70 percent of the total electric bill for commercial customers. Using a battery to avoid demand charges can reduce your utility bill by more than half. Reducing consumption spikes, in turn reduces your demand spike, saving significant money in areas around Boston, MA and California.
Load Shifting
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Load shifting is similar to peak shaving but instead of focusing solely on peak pricing, it focuses on reducing your overall kWh costs. In effect, you take advantage of the difference between low-cost energy and high-cost energy storing power when costs are low and discharging it when costs are high. Load shifting typically provides incremental value to a system that is already providing other benefits like peak shaving.