A Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) is a fantastic innovation that helps you store and distribute energy in the form of electricity. So, how does it work? Imagine the battery used in a flashlight but on a much larger scale. A BESS uses batteries to store electrical energy, which you can later use when needed.
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The benefit of a BESS is the integration of renewable energy sources like wind and solar during periods of low demand (off-peak times). When demand increases (peak times), you can use that stored energy to reduce costs and establish benefits for yourself.
A BESS comprises several key components that work together to store energy and convert it as needed.
The main components are:
ComponentFunctionBattery CellsStore electrical energyInvertersConvert DC from batteries into ACBattery Management System (BMS)Monitors battery performance and safetyEnergy Management System (EMS)Optimizes system efficiency and performanceIn this section, we will discuss the most common types of batteries used in BESS: lithium-ion batteries, flow batteries, and lead-acid batteries.
Lithium-ion batteries have become increasingly popular in recent years due to their high energy density, long cycle life, and relatively low self-discharge rate. These batteries are well-suited for BESS applications as they can store large amounts of energy in a small space, making them an ideal choice when space is a constraint. Additionally, lithium-ion batteries have a faster charging and discharging rate compared to other battery types, which allows for better efficiency and performance in your BESS.
Flow batteries are another option for BESS. These batteries store energy in the form of liquid electrolytes, which allows for a separation of energy capacity and power capacity. One of the key advantages of flow batteries is their scalability &#; by simply increasing the size of the electrolyte reservoirs, you can increase the overall energy capacity of the system. However, flow batteries typically have a lower energy density than lithium-ion batteries, which may require more space for installation. On the bright side, flow batteries are known for their long cycle life and ability to be charged and discharged frequently without significant degradation.
Lastly, lead-acid batteries have been used in BESS applications for many years, primarily due to their low cost and availability. These rechargeable batteries have a relatively low energy density compared to lithium-ion and flow batteries, but they are also highly reliable and can withstand a wide range of operating conditions. While lead-acid batteries might not be the ideal choice for every BESS application due to their size and weight, they still offer a valuable, cost-effective option for certain energy storage needs.
As an innovative energy storage solution that plays a crucial role in storing and managing electricity efficiently, it is designed to store and distribute energy in the form of electricity, which can be widely used in applications such as electricity grids, electric vehicles, solar power installations, and smart homes.
When you tap into various energy sources, like solar or wind power, your BESS captures and stores the electricity in rechargeable batteries.
Here is a general outline of how a BESS functions:
One thing you should know is that BESS is designed to convert Direct Current (DC) from the batteries to Alternating Current (AC), which is the standard type of electricity used in homes and businesses. This conversion is achieved using inverters in the energy storage system. Moreover, it can work in the reverse direction, converting AC to DC, to charge the batteries.
Let&#;s explore some of the most common applications and how they could improve your daily life:
When considering a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), you&#;ll need to factor in the installation costs. These costs can vary depending on the size and complexity of the system. Typically, larger systems require more investment, but economies of scale can come into play, making the cost per unit of energy storage capacity lower for larger systems.
BESS can generate revenue in various ways, including providing services to the utility grid and participating in energy markets. For example, your BESS can offer:
These revenue streams can offset the initial costs and contribute to the profitability of your BESS investment.
Implementing a BESS can lead to significant savings on your energy bills. Here are a few ways your BESS can help you save money:
In summary, the economic aspects of a BESS include installation costs, revenue generation, and energy bill savings. By carefully considering these factors, you can make the most of your BESS investment, ultimately benefiting from lower energy costs and increasing revenue streams.
When dealing with Battery Energy Storage Systems, it&#;s essential to prioritize safety to protect both people and property. By implementing the right safety measures, you can ensure your BESS runs efficiently while mitigating any potential hazards. Here are some key safety measures to keep in mind:
Maintaining your Battery Energy Storage System is essential for ensuring long-lasting performance and efficiency. Just like any other electrical system, regular maintenance and monitoring of your BESS can help identify potential issues and keep the system running smoothly.
One important aspect of maintenance is checking the battery management system (BMS), which ensures the safety and efficiency of the battery system. By keeping an eye on the BMS, you can optimize the energy storage and usage, and potentially extend the lifespan of the batteries.
To ensure that your BESS stays efficient, you also need to be aware of factors such as energy density. This refers to the amount of energy that can be stored in a battery per unit of volume or mass. Higher energy density typically means a smaller and lighter battery system, making it easier to integrate into various applications. Keep in mind that energy density can affect the overall efficiency of your BESS, so choose the batteries with an appropriate energy density for your specific needs.
Here are some general maintenance tips to help you keep your BESS efficient and well-functioning:
Imagine living in a community that generates and consumes its own electricity. That&#;s where microgrids come into the picture. A microgrid is a small-scale power grid that connects local energy resources, like solar panels, wind turbines, or gas generators, with local electricity loads. It can operate autonomously or in conjunction with the main power grid, providing greater reliability and flexibility.
One of the key components of a microgrid is the Battery Energy Storage System. A BESS stores energy in the form of electricity, which can be distributed when demand peaks or when renewable energy sources are intermittently unavailable. This helps ensure that your electricity supply remains stable and uninterrupted.
Benefits of BESS in Microgrids:
As the power grid needs change and renewable energy resources like solar and wind continue to grow in popularity, battery energy storage systems (BESS) are becoming an essential tool for maintaining optimal grid operation. This section will explain how BESS can provide valuable grid services, optimize power quality, and support distributed energy resources.
Firstly, let&#;s discuss grid services. Grid services are the different activities and solutions that battery energy storage systems perform to support power system reliability and stability. Some examples include frequency regulation, energy balancing, and peak demand reduction. With BESS, utilities can store excess energy produced during periods of low demand and release it when the demand is high, helping maintain a balanced power supply on the grid.
As the grid incorporates more distributed energy resources (DERs) such as solar and wind, it becomes crucial to maintain power quality. Integrating large amounts of variable renewable energy can lead to issues with power quality, including voltage fluctuations, harmonic distortion, and frequency imbalances. BESS can help mitigate these issues by absorbing or discharging energy as needed, ensuring that the overall power quality remains stable.
In terms of power quality, a BESS can help maintain the system voltage and frequency, reducing the risk of blackouts or brownouts. For instance, in the event of a sudden increase in demand or a drop in renewable generation, a BESS can release stored energy to stabilize the grid and avoid disturbances. This rapid response is crucial for ensuring reliable power supply to consumers.
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Now, let&#;s consider frequency regulation. The power system operates at a specific frequency, maintained to deliver a stable and continuous supply of electricity. When the balance between power supply and demand is disrupted, BESS can step in. By quickly charging or discharging energy, they help control the system frequency and prevent potential blackouts.
A Battery Storage System typically includes battery cells arranged into modules organized into strings to achieve the necessary DC voltage. These strings are often called racks. The combined DC outputs from the racks are then directed into a Power Conversion System (PCS), which is a 4-quadrant inverter that converts the DC energy into usable AC electricity.
BESS facilities play a critical role in stabilizing the power grid. They provide backup power during outages, assist in load leveling, and help manage fluctuations in electricity supply and demand. By rapidly charging and discharging energy, BESS facilities can maintain grid stability and reliability in situations such as sudden changes in renewable energy generation or unexpected spikes in demand.
Implementing a Battery Energy Storage System offers several key benefits, including improved grid stability and reliability, increased use of renewable energy sources, reduced reliance on fossil fuel-based power plants, and potential cost savings through energy arbitrage and lower peak demand charges. Additionally, BESS technology can provide backup power during emergencies, helping to minimize the impact of power outages.
There are numerous manufacturers in the BESS technology market, with key players including Tesla, LG Chem, Samsung SDI, Panasonic, and Deye, among others. These manufacturers offer a range of battery energy storage products and solutions, catering to various needs and applications in the renewable energy sector. By comparing the offerings of these top manufacturers, you can find the right solution for your specific energy storage needs.
Where can energy storage systems (ESS) generate value? Applications can range from ancillary services to grid operators to reducing costs &#;behind-the-meter&#; to end users. Battery energy storage systems (BESS) have seen the widest variety of uses, while others such as pumped hydropower, flywheels and thermal storage are used in specific applications.
Applications for Grid Operators and Utilities
Energy Arbitrage
In markets where there is a significant difference in locational marginal price (LMP) of electricity at different times, energy arbitrage can be used to offset costs. Wholesale electricity is purchased and stored when the LMP is low to be resold when the LMP is high. Some losses occur due during charging and discharging. Arbitrage on its own is not typically a profitable energy storage application, however can be combined with others by value stacking.
Energy Arbitrage refers to wholesale buying and selling which is done by grid operators &#; for end-users using similar tactics see time-of-use management. Load following (ramping up electricity supply as activity increases in the morning and ramping down as activity diminishes towards the evening is considered a subset of energy arbitrage.
Flexible Peaking Resource/Resource Adequacy
Peak demand on the grid generally only occurs for a few hours a day. In addition to the power generation that makes up the &#;base load&#; of electricity, utilities and grid operators keeping peaking resources on standby, ready to inject a surge of additional power into the grid. Peaker supply resources typically have been served by fossil fuels such as gas peaker plants.
Many different types of electricity storage are seeing a surge of popularity as peaker resources due to their extremely fast response times &#; in the case of lithium-ion batteries, in the milliseconds. Pumped hydropower storage is extensively used as a peaker resource.
Recent forecasts predict that ESS could replace gas peakers entirely in the United States by .
Frequency Regulation
The electrical grid transmits power from generators to end users at a fixed alternating current (AC) frequency &#; in general, 60 Hz for North and South American, 50 Hz for Europe and Asia. When power generation is equal to power usage, the frequency is stable. If usage is higher than generation, the frequency drops: brownouts and blackouts. When power generated exceeds the demands of the grid, the frequency rises: this can damage the grid and connected devices.
Frequency regulation involves regulating supply and demand on a second-by-second basis to keep the AC current within the exacting required tolerance bounds. As more and more renewables are connected to the electrical grid, variability in supply and fluctuations in frequency are increasingly frequent and severe.
Typically, generating assets are ramped up or down to provide frequency regulating services. In today&#;s market, it is the highest value ancillary service to the grid. Energy storage is increasingly being used instead of fossil fuel plants for this application &#; their flexibility and up to millisecond fast response times make them well-suited.
Reserve Capacity (Spin/Non-Spin)
A crucial requirement for electrical utilities, or groups of electrical utilities, is to keep the power on even if a generator goes offline. The system as a whole must not experience excessive variation in frequency and power flow even if the largest of the system&#;s generators goes down.
Typically, all generating assets in the system are deliberately run with a small percentage of reserve capacity, which adds inefficiencies, extra costs and waste. Fast-acting energy storage systems such as capacitors, flywheels and batteries can be used instead for this application, allowing generators to be run closer to their rated value. Reserve capacity is further split into spinning reserve (can respond within 10 seconds), Supplemental reserve (can respond within 10 minutes) and backup supply (can respond within one hour).
Voltage Support
As well as regulating frequency, grid operators have to ensure a certain level of voltage and voltage stability is maintained. This involves managing reactance across the entire grid &#; an ancillary service known as voltage support is used for this purpose. In the past, generating assets able to produce reactive power would have to be added or subtracted to the grid. One challenge associated with this is that reactive power can only be transmitted over short distances.
Energy storage, and in particular distributed energy storage, can be located extremely close to end-users &#; making them an increasingly attractive option for voltage support.
Black Start
When the entire grid is affected by a power-outage, &#;Black Start&#; resources are used to turn it back on. Challengingly, they must be able to operate without a grid connection themselves. Energy storage systems are ideally suited for black start applications because they can be run in standby mode and independently to re-energize the other grid systems.
Transmission & Distribution Deferral
As demand for electricity, grid operators face the need to add new or upgrade existing transmission and distribution (T&D) equipment. Adding energy storage can defer or even remove the need for these additional upgrades or pieces of equipment. This storage application is valuable in two ways; firstly the cost savings from not buying the new equipment, and secondly the same ESS can also be used for other value-generating applications.
Transmission Congestion Relief
Electricity transmission corridors, like other forms of transport, experience congestion at certain times of day. Operators charge utilities higher prices to use this corridors during peak times. By installing energy storage downstream of the congested transmission sections, electricity is stored during peak times and released when the congestion levels have dropped, thus reducing costs.
Customer (&#;Behind-the-meter&#;) Applications
Time-Of-Use Bill Management
When electricity prices are variable depending on the time of day, storing energy for later use can reduce power costs. Energy is drawn from the grid to be stored when demand and prices are low (typically at night), then used during peak times when prices are higher (typically during the day).
Increased Self-Consumption/Self-sufficiency from Solar plus Storage
Installing storage with end-user solar can be used to reduce or eliminate reliance on the grid by stockpiling excess solar power generated during the day. Thermal (in the form of water tanks) and battery energy storage are the most used technologies for this application. This is an especially valuable application in areas with utility rate structures that are disadvantageous to distributed solar, or for microgrid energy storage systems that have limited grid connectivity.
Demand Charge Reduction
Commercial and industrial (C&I) consumers in many electricity markets, such as the United States, face electricity costs not only based on the amount of energy used, but also on their maximum power draw. In some cases, this &#;Demand Charge&#; can make up close to 50% of their total power costs. By reducing the maximum power drawn from the grid, significant costs savings are possible.
A robust demand charge management industry has been in place for decades, however, the explosion of energy storage is well-suited to this particular application. In the same way as time-of-use management, energy is stored during low-demand times to be released (and reduce power drawn from the grid) when demand is high. Demand charge management and reduction is a significant value-generator for the C&I sector.
Backup Power/ Uninterruptible Power Systems
During a power outage, stored electricity can be used to continue operations without interruptions. This is especially relevant in the wake of natural disasters like Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Harvey and the recent California wildfires which saw widespread grid power outages. Intelligently deployed energy storage systems are essential to the continued operation of hospitals and emergency services.
If you want to know more about this and other topics directly from end users of energy storage technologies join us at one of these annual events: The Energy Storage World Forum (Grid Scale Applications), or The Residential Energy Storage Forum, or one of our Training Courses.
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