How can energy storage technology improve resiliency?

This FOA supports large-scale demonstration and deployment of storage technologies that will provide resiliency to critical facilities and infrastructure. Projects will show the ability of energy storage technologies to provide dependable supply of energy as back up generation during a grid outage or other emergency event.

How is energy and power capacity optimized in a candidate storage plant?

Energy and power capacity of candidate storage plants are unconstrained and optimized by the model from the perspective of the grid, such that the model may build storage of any duration and size in each load zone.

How much does solar and wind curtailment drop if storage is mandated?

We find that solar and wind curtailment drops as up to 20 TWh if storage is mandated (Fig. 5a). The WECC’s yearly renewable curtailment drops sharply from 118 GWh in the baseline to 9.6 GWh in the 20 TWh of storage scenario (−92%). Beyond this point, the impact is much more gradual.

Do energy storage mandates reduce variability in electricity prices?

We find that energy storage mandates largely reduce the variability in electricity prices, especially for the first 20 TWh of mandates (Fig. 6a). In the 1.94 TWh baseline, 82% of the marginal prices are at 0 $/MWh since for large portions of the year the WECC generates more renewable energy than it needs.