Energy Storage Technology Is Accelerating – but Grids Aren’t Ready for the Transition

As a result, the UK is missing an opportunity. New energy storage technologies that can capture large amounts of electricity generated by wind or solar power when there’s too much of it and feed it back into the grid when it’s needed save money by reducing waste. A smart grid with such storage could reduce costs in the energy system by up to £40 billion (US$56 billion) by 2050.

Public subsidies could encourage companies to build and operate sufficient energy storage as more wind and solar is deployed, and the initial costs to the consumer would be returned through lower bills over time as energy system costs fall. Early support for new storage technologies will probably slash their cost too. This is what happened with renewables like wind and solar power, which are now cheaper than fossil fuel generation. And by attracting companies developing energy storage to the UK, a national industry will bloom. At the moment, the market for energy storage is largest in the US and that’s where industry investment is heading.

Preparing for the Transition
Several companies are offering to pay owners of energy storage devices (like home batteries) a fee to manage their devices over the internet – instructing the device to charge or discharge to the National Grid when necessary. Consumers can charge home batteries with electricity from the grid when it’s cheap (normally at night), and use this stored energy instead of buying more expensive electricity from the grid during the day. Millions of home storage devices could eventually charge and discharge according to algorithms in order to minimize costs to the consumer. But without strategies and tools to handle the effects of storage distributed across millions of buildings and electric vehicles, costs could mount on the companies managing the electricity infrastructure and grid operators.

Energy storage will also need to integrate heat, power and mobility. Hot water tanks will be connected to electric heat pumps in buildings and electric vehicles will become mobile storage devices, potentially capable of selling electricity back to the grid. Storage will be the piece of the jigsaw that all the other pieces fit around.

These changes will alter the way people pay for their energy supply, as more of it goes towards electricity that warms homes, fuels vehicles and powers appliances. New supplier models are being tested where consumers pay for levels of warmth at home, or unlimited electricity deals similar to mobile phone plans. But how will the government protect consumers while still expecting them to pay for the costs of investment?

If the government fails to build enough storage to keep up with renewable generation, the grid will need fossil fuels to balance supply and demand. The uncoordinated charging and discharging of private batteries by consumers will make maintaining a stable grid costly, too. And as our energy use becomes more integrated across heat, power and transport, how the low-carbon transition will affect consumers is uncertain. Energy storage can help transform energy systems on the path to net zero emissions, but only if these challenges aren’t ignored.

Jonathan Radcliffe is Reader in Energy Systems and Innovation, University of Birmingham. This article is published courtesy of The Conversation.