The evolving energy and capacity values of utility-scale PV-plus-battery hybrid system architectures
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Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Denholm, Paul L..
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The “Assessing the Value and Impact of Dispatchable Concentrating Solar” project consists of three distinct tasks, which examines the role of CSP and other solar plus storage technologies in providing grid services spanning timescales from seconds to decades.
As costs continue to decline, jurisdictions are seeking to deploy increasing levels of utility-scale battery energy storage. This Greening the Grid document provides system planners and regulators with fundamental information about battery energy storage including which services these devices are capable of, how these devices interact with renewable energy and what barriers exist to their broader deployment.
Providing peaking capacity could be a significant U.S. market for energy storage. Of particular focus are batteries with 4-hour duration due to rules in several regions along with these batteries potential to achieve life-cycle cost parity with combustion turbines compared to longer-duration batteries. However, whether 4-hour energy storage can provide peak capacity depends largely on the shape of electricity demand and under historical grid conditions, beyond about 28 GW nationally, the ability of 4-hour batteries to provide peak capacity begins to fall. We find that the addition of renewable generation can significantly increase storage potential by changing the shape of net demand patterns; for example, beyond about 10% penetration of solar photovoltaics, the national practical potential for 4-hour storage to provide peak capacity doubles. The impact of wind generation is less clear and likely requires more detailed study considering the exchange of wind power across multiple regions.
As the role of wind energy grows in the U.S. power grid, there is increased interest and requirements for it to provide 'essential reliability' services (historically often referred to as 'ancillary' services). These services are critical to maintaining the reliability and stability of the grid, and historically were provided by large 'synchronous' generators, mainly fossil-fueled and hydroelectric generators. To help evaluate the potential role of wind in providing these services, this report provides an overview of services provided to the grid, including their technical requirements, quantities currently procured, and some estimates of costs. The report also summarizes the technical and regulatory issues around wind providing these services.
As the role of wind energy grows in the U.S. power grid, there is increased interest and requirements for it to provide 'essential reliability' services (historically often referred to as 'ancillary' services). These services are critical to maintaining the reliability and stability of the grid, and historically were provided by large 'synchronous' generators, mainly fossil-fueled and hydroelectric generators. To help evaluate the potential role of wind in providing these services, this report provides an overview of services provided to the grid, including their technical requirements, quantities currently procured, and some estimates of costs. The report also summarizes the technical and regulatory issues around wind providing these services.
For the electric power grid, maintaining nearly constant frequency is important measure of system reliability and stability. Primary frequency response (PFR) is one of the important reserve services used by grid operators to uphold steady frequency. Modeling PFR is historically rare in grid integration and planning studies, but could become more importantly with greater deployment of non-synchronous generators. In this work, we illustrate how a PFR constraint can be implemented into production cost models, which are a key component of grid planning studies. We also discuss the complexities and nuances associated with PFR modeling and provide results of a case study implementing PFR in a section of the western U.S. power grid.
Concentrating solar power (CSP) is a unique form of renewable energy because it can be integrated with thermal energy storage (TES). CSP-TES can provide value to the power grid by supplying a dispatchable source of renewable energy and potentially other grid services such as operating reserves. These characteristics of CSP-TES are often incompletely captured in utility-planning or technology-valuation analyses. We describe an approach for representing the dispatchability of CSP-TES accurately in production cost models, while considering the resource-dependent nature of the technology. We also discuss the challenge of properly representing the ability of CSP-TES to provide operating reserves because of the technology's energy-limited nature. We apply our modeling methods to illustrate how the value of providing dispatchable energy and ancillary services can be captured together and independently. This approach can be applied to most commercial, academic, and open-source production cost models to value CSP-TES appropriately in power system planning studies.
In this report, we examine the potential for replacing conventional peaking capacity in California with energy storage, including analysis of the changing technical potential with increased storage deployment and the effect of PV deployment. We examine nine years of historic load data, a range of storage durations (2-8 hours), and a range of PV penetration levels (0%-30%). We demonstrate how PV increases the ability of storage to reduce peak net demand. In the scenarios analyzed, the expected penetration of PV in California in 2020 could more than double the potential for 4-hour energy storage to provide capacity services.
Opportunities to provide peaking capacity with low-cost energy storage are emerging. But adding storage changes the ability of subsequent storage additions to meet peak demand. Increasing photovoltaic (PV) deployment also affects storage's ability to provide peak capacity. This study examines storage's potential to replace conventional peak capacity in California.
This report analyzes the storage duration required to reduce VG curtailment under high-VG scenarios. It also examines the value of storage with varying durations.
The decreasing costs of both PV and energy storage technologies have raised interest in the creation of combined PV plus storage systems to provide dispatchable energy and reliable capacity. In this study, we examine the tradeoffs among various PV plus storage configurations and quantify the impact of configuration on system net value.
The decreasing costs of both PV and energy storage technologies have raised interest in the creation of combined PV plus storage systems to provide dispatchable energy and reliable capacity. In this study, we examine the tradeoffs among various PV plus storage configurations and quantify the impact of configuration on system net value.