CNESA Co-Hosts Symposium on Mass Energy Storage in Renewable Energy

Symposium participants gather for a group picture. 7.15.2016.

On July 15, 2016, more than 40 experts and industry leaders in renewable energy and battery storage convened in Beijing to discuss how to adopt mass energy storage technology in wind and PV power generating systems. The event was co-organized by the China Electric Power Research Institute, BYD Electric Power Research Institute, China Energy Storage Alliance (CNESA), and the Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China.

Tina Zhang, secretary General of the CNESA, served as host of the event, while Zifeng Zhang, BYD Electric Power Research Institute’s Chief Engineer, delivered the keynote address. There were additional speeches by representatives HuamingZhang, Chief Engineer of Rongke Power; Shicheng Wang, CEO of Beijing Soaring Electronic Technology; Jianlin Li, Head of Electrical Engineering at the China Electric Power Research Institute; as well as Zhi He, Chief of Sales at Sunwoda Electronics.

The featured guests gave speeches centered on implementing mass energy storage technology in renewable energy generating systems. Some topics discussed were large in scope such as factors affecting total adoption of renewable energy sources to generate power. The rest of the topics largely centered aroundbattery storage, including the role of battery storage stations in transmitting electricity generated by renewable sources and comparing and contrasting the characteristics of grid-integrated and independent battery storage stations. Methods to integrate such storage stations into renewable power generating systems were also discussed.

CNESA’s research and government affairs teams, drawing from a now deeper understanding on symposium topics on energy storage usage, technological advances, costs measures, and policy recommendations, look forward  to continue their efforts to develop renewable energy in China.

NY-BEST Energy Storage Roadmap

In January 2016, NY-BEST (New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium) publicly released a report titled ‘Energy Storage Roadmap for New York’s Electric Grid.’ NY-BEST sees energy storage as a key technology capable of making NY’s grid cleaner, more efficient, more cost-effective, and more flexible and reliable.

Source: NY-BEST

In March 2015, NY-BEST convened its ‘Capture the Energy 2015’ conference, where discussion led to the initial ideas of the roadmap, which concentrated on grid sectors. The report received funding from NYSERDA, and the support of NYSERDA, National Grid, NYISO, AES Energy Storage, Saft, Tesla, DNV GL, and other internal government, grid companies, ISOs, technology companies, energy companies, aggregators, and research organizations. The report shows the state government’s aim to build new oversight and market mechanisms, allowing for the comprehensive monetization of energy storage’s value. As well as building financial platforms, providing financial support, and decreasing project financial risks. Building standardized methods, rules, and laws and other means of decreasing soft costs and realizing the 15 year development goals:

2017: Establish standardized safety rules and regulations
2018: Fix NYISO’s market rules to allow storage to participate in the wholesale electric market. (Lowering the electric market’s capacity sizing restrictions, allowing customer-sited storage assets to participate in the electric markets, etc.)
2019: Provide detailed distribution system data for local zone prices. (Improve local management of distributed assets).
2020: Decrease the soft costs of energy storage by 33%
2022: Energy storage installed capacity to reach 1 GW (NY-BEST, 2012 roadmap’s goal)
2025: Energy storage installed capacity to reach 2 GW (reducing peak load, strengthening grid reliability and flexibility)
2030: Energy storage installed capacity to reach 4 GW – 50% of electric installations come from renewable energy, greenhouse gasses reduced 40%.
2050: Greenhouse gasses reduced 80%.

Source: GTM

New York grid-scale pipeline: startlingly small – 28 MW in operation and 0 in development as of end of 2015.

Source:GTM

However, the state is not without economic potential for ES when incentives are included.

Source: GTM

Source: GTM

New York could be even more attractive in the future in less conservative cases.

Source: GTM

Source: GTM

Driver: T&D Investment Deferral – Barrier: Monetization

To avoid a $1B T&D investment, ConEd proposed spending $200M on behind-the-meter load management and an additional $300M on traditional substation upgrades. At projected rates of load growth, ConEd needs to reduce or realign the timing of 52 MW of load by 2018 to avoid overloading the substations. This comes to about 120 hours of about 26 MW of ES each summer during substation peak events.

The value assigned to storage for providing this service is calculated using an assumed installed cost of $1B and an equipment carrying charge of 12%, resulting in an annual deferral value of $120M. It is assumed that this value is distributed equally between the energy storage fleet (paid out over two years) and the energy efficiency/demand response programs.

In this scenario, the above distribution upgrade deferral only accounts for 1% of the ES unit’s time, creating over half its revenue and allowing it to provide other services. Still, this does not seem enough to cover costs under the given conditions.

Source: RMI

Source: RMI

Projects

Green Charge Networks does have a major demonstration presence in the state – 6 of the 13 projects in operation (331 kW 694 kWh total), with 1 project under construction (96 kW 96 kWh). The GCN demonstration projects were commercial in application and commissioned in 2013 and 2014. Given their specs, it is unclear if they qualified for the below ConEdison demand management subsidy, while they did receive partial federal funding under the DOE’s Smart Grid Demonstration Program.

The market is surprisingly diverse. GCN is the only standout.

50 kW over 4 hours is 200 kWh at full charge. This implies that a device must be larger than 50 kW 200 kWh to get the incentives, however, since aggregations are allowed, there may be more flexibility. GCN’s 6 operational projects come in above this line in aggregate, though their individual installations seem to be closer to 100 kW 100 kWh.   

Incentives

Below are the key features of ConEdison’s energy storage and load shifting incentives.

Incentives are based on the average output kW discharged over On-Peak Hours, provided at least 50% of the incentivized battery capacity is discharged continuously during all On-Peak Hours.

Projects or portfolios must have a combined peak demand reduction of 50kW or greater. Peak Demand Reduction (kW) is defined as the system-coincident peak demand reduction that occurs during the summer capability period, between the hours of 2pm-6pm, Monday through Friday, from June 1 through September 30, excluding legal holidays.

Incentives are capped at 50% of installed project cost.

Source: ConEdison

Source: ConEdison

Given the state’s interest, we expect energy storage to gain access to more and more revenue streams and service markets in the near future. Since utilities like ConEd are procuring many energy storage systems themselves, they may be able to internalize enough benefits through their own usage to make the projects viable, similar to how distribution company Oncor did in Texas. CNESA will continue tracking the development of the high-potential New York energy storage market.

Germany’s user energy storage subsidy's second phase

With the successful implementation of the first iteration subsidy policy, the next iteration’s goals, new requirements, and the forecast standards it aims to reach.

Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economics, new PV+storage subsidy plans went into effect on March 1, 2016 and to continue until the end of 2018, has received a total of 30M EUR.

The goal is to strengthen grid flexibility and realize energy storage technology cost reductions. To ease grid pressure/congestion, battery energy storage was given even higher set standards. BESSs receiving funding are permitted to sell half of the PV system’s peak power back to the grid, with the remainder stored temporarily in the battery.

The subsidy’s funding comes from KfW, Germany’s state-owned development bank and provided similar to loans. The Ministry of Economics will strengthen oversight of BESS development, and continue evaluating new plans. In the original subsidy program, KfW had a budget of about EUR 60M, which funded about 19,000 ESSs, stimulating about EUR 450M in total investments.

As of end 2015, over 35,000 homes and commercial operations had installed PV-storage systems. Germany Trade And Invest (GTAI) expects a boom in deployment in 2016-17, reaching annual installation volumes of 50,000 systems by 2020; though other sources from the same organization post a number as high as 100,000 systems installed annually by 2018. The retrofit market will also be quite significant. 

Other entrants - Utilities

One factor to watch in the German market is the actions of utilities. Many have announced or launch their own PV+storage products, as German utility E.ON did recently. E.ON is of particular interest as it is handling the transition to new energy by splitting the company in two, spinning all traditional assets off into a separate company. E.ON is developing its own electricity storage system in partnership with Dresden-based SOLARWATT GmbH, which last year successfully launched an award-winning electricity storage system called MyReserve. The first E.ON models will be rolled out in Germany in a few months and will be available in increasingly larger numbers going forward. The storage devices will employ a modular design, and as such it will be easier to increase capacity in the future. The system will also come with an energy app visualizing the production and consumption for the customer.

Note: In January 2016, E.ON announced a partnership with Samsung SDI for grid and C&I customers.

Large Scale Energy Storage for Europe

Courtesy: Niccolò Caranti/Flickr

Member news -- Gravity Power, LLC and Gravity Energy AG are pleased to announce that they signed a twenty year exclusive license agreement.  In exchange for the right to sell Gravity Power plants in Europe, Gravity Energy AG will pay license fees, will fund Gravity Power’s seal system development and will fund a 1 MW, 30 minute demonstration plant currently planned for construction at the site of the Stadtwerke Weilheim municipal utility in Weilheim i OB, Bavaria.  Initial seal development work is planned at this site and will take approximately six months.  Site geotechnical investigation and the construction of the demonstration plant are planned to start in 2016.

“For some time we have believed that our patented technology will provide the lowest cost solution for utility scale energy storage applications”, said Tom Mason, CEO of Gravity Power.  “We are excited to demonstrate this technology.”

“Europe and more specifically Germany are world leaders in wind and solar power generation.  As such they need a balancing system like the Gravity Power technology provides.  These plants will help Germany realize its plans to replace nuclear energy and carbon emitting gas fueled plants with less expensive renewable energy and carbon free storage that will deliver the wind and solar energy when needed.” said Horatio von John, CEO, of Gravity Energy AG.

Gravity Power, LLC is a gravity-based utility scale energy storage company located in Goleta, California.  It holds patents on its proprietary technology in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Russia, China and Japan, with patents pending in Europe and other major markets.

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Gravity Energy AG is a German corporation located in Tegernsee, Bavaria established to demonstrate this technology and to bring the proprietary Gravity Power technology to the European market.

Parker Ships Record 113 Megawatts of Energy Storage PCS in 2015

Member news -- The Energy Grid Tie Division of Parker Hannifin Corporation, the global leader in motion and control technologies, realized shipments of energy storage power conversion systems (PCS) totaling 113 megawatts, bringing cumulative worldwide deployment to over 225 megawatts. The first megawatt-class system went on line in 2008. While the majority of the systems are connected to lithium ion batteries, many successfully linked flow batteries to the grid.

The 890GT-B, a 2 megawatt (2.2 MVA) rated outdoor PCS, accounted for the majority of the high-power installations, with indoor and modular variants covering lower power requirements or facilities that preferred to house the inverters in a building. The addition of outdoor-rated, climate controlled lithium-ion battery containers and full turn-key solutions further contributed to Parker’s growth in the market.

“Our modular product design and advanced controls allow us a great amount of flexibility and ability to respond to our customer’s specific needs,” said Jim Hoelscher, General Manager of the Energy Grid Tie Division of Parker Hannifin. “Additionally, our advanced cooling technology allows for a compact design as well as higher efficiencies than that of conventionally cooled systems.”

Installations in 2015 spanned the globe. In North America, Parker installations were concentrated in the PJM market (part of the Eastern Interconnection grid), but significant progress was also made in the MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator) and CAISO (California Independent System Operator) territories. Offshore sites included a 16 megawatt system in Korea, 20 megawatts in Chile, with others in Australia, Japan, Germany, Northern Ireland and The Netherlands. Applications include fast-frequency regulation, micro-grid support and roadside vehicle charging stations.

Parker is able to offer a superior energy storage product by leveraging cutting-edge control, HMI and advanced cooling technologies, as well as applied engineering and commissioning and expertise at the system level.

“Parker has a major presence and extensive experience in the renewable energy and power generation market. We understand the needs of all partners, from battery suppliers and EPC contractors to independent power producers and utilities, and what it takes to ensure smooth commissioning, reliable operation and maximized uptime,” said Hoelscher. “Additionally, this year, our aftermarket services will be greatly expanded to meet and exceed the expectations of this expanding market. Heading into 2016, Parker is poised to grow in both sales and aftermarket service support sectors.”

Visit the Energy Grid Tie Division at www.parker.com/egt for more information on Parker’s energy storage products.

IET Publishes Study on Phase Change Storage

In a study published in the Journal of Power and Energy this month, researchers at the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics in Beijing presented results showing how to improve the functionality of phase change thermal storage devices using innovative design.

Phase change energy storage is an excellent way of storing vast amounts of energy as heat. However, conductivity has proven to be an issue, limiting the charge/discharge rate and round-trip efficiency.

To better understand the problem, researchers conducted a numerical study on a unique energy storage design integrating three types of phase change materials. Results showed that a cascaded phase change material design greatly increases the heat transfer rate and reduced charging time.  

Flowchart describing experimental set-up. Source: IET, Chinese Academy of Science

This is the latest of IET's achievements in energy storage. In October 2015, IET announced new international patents for supercritical CAES. 

Welcoming Rayspower Energy Group

We're happy to welcome Rayspower to the China Energy Storage Alliance.

Rayspower is a leading Chinese energy project developer, with operations in solar PV/CSP system integration, manufacturing, and solar plant investment and operation. Rayspower has developed nearly 1000 megawatts of ground-based and distributed solar power generation.

As an enterprise with extensive experience in CSP, Rayspower built the first flexible CSP reflector production line in Asia, which manufactures a full range of top-tier trough mirrors.

Rayspower is a solar technology leader, having established China's first engineering laboratory on concentrating solar thermal power system technology. To date, Rayspower has patented more than 80 core technologies.

Rayspower is committed to its mission of building a clean future through solar energy. By leveraging leading technologies, developing innovative solar financing models, and establishing strong relationships with partners in China and abroad, Rayspower expects to become a powerful force in the global new energy industry.

http://www.rayspower.com/ 

CNESA Welcomes the Shanghai Electric Power Design Institute!

The Shanghai Electric Power Design Institute is a leading electric design firm and subsidiary of PowerChina, a large state-owned energy project engineering enterprise.

The Institute specializes in grid design, inverters, T&D, and renewable energy design, including projects in wind, solar, and bioenergy. The company designed Asia’s largest monocrystalline building-integrated photovoltaic system at the Shanghai Hongqiao train station, a solar demonstration project at the World Expo in Shanghai, and dozens of engineering projects in electricity transmission, power conversion, and grid design, including projects in Southeast Asia and Africa. 

Member website > 

California's Demand Response Revolution

California is moving another step closer to strengthening its grid through a new mechanism to provide compensation for demand response.

The Demand Response Auction Mechanism (DRAM) is a program which allows demand response providers – including those in solar storage, behind-the-meter batteries, load control, and EV charging – to get compensation for providing services to the grid.

This is good news for a number of California demand-side players including Tesla, SolarCity, Stem, Green Charge Networks, Advanced Microgrid Solutions, EnerNOC and Comverge, to name a handful.

Providers have two ways of getting paid.

First, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has called on California’s three large investor-owned utilities to collectively procure 22 megawatts of capacity through demand response. The idea is that by having control of resources that can cut down on load during peak times, ratepayers benefit from reduced capital expenditures and the elimination of emissions from gas peaker plants.

Second, demand response will soon be allowed to bid into the wholesale market on a much wider scale. DRAM allows demand response providers to pool together portfolios of EV chargers, smart thermostats, behind-the-meter storage and more, and bid these resources into the wholesale market as an alternative to traditional generation.

Let’s look more closely at these two opportunities.

Capacity payments

In California, electricity retailers are required to demonstrate that they have procured enough generation capacity to meet projected peak loads. Traditionally, this capacity requirement has been met primarily through bilateral contracts with generators.

But since 2014, the California Public Utilities Commission has examined ways of expanding the role of distributed demand response. DRAM introduces a bidding process, allowing any demand response providers who can meet certain requirements to make their assets available to help the utilities meet their capacity requirements. In exchange, utilities pay these demand response providers a capacity fee based on the number of kilowatts they can provide to reduce peak load when the grid needs it.

In the DRAM capacity auction, demand response providers are called on to offer a price for their capacity. Providers are keeping these prices secret, as the market is highly competitive.

The 22-megawatt procurement is a minimum amount set by the utilities commission, so there is the possibility that utilities will procure more. In an effort to drive up residential demand response, the utilities commission has required that at least 20% of the procured capacity should come from the residential sector.

Utilities will select the winners of this procurement at the end of the month.

Wholesale market

Beginning next June, approved demand response resources will be able to bid into California’s wholesale electricity market.

In this system, the wholesale prices paid to these demand response providers will vary depending on their location. Due to the fact that some regions are grid-constrained or may have imbalances in supply and demand throughout the day, the wholesale price of electricity also changes. Using these price signals, demand response providers can choose where to focus their efforts, and then bid their assets into the day-ahead wholesale market.

The first step in the wholesale market process begins in February, and we won't see demand response on the market until June. In the meantime, demand response providers will be tested to make sure they can deliver the load curtailment they say they can. In case they fail to deliver when they hit the market, the providers will have to pay for the load curtailment they fail to provide.

The DRAM program also promises to make changes to how California’s grid looks for solutions to ramping problems caused by California’s rapidly growing solar generation base. This is a topic we will cover in a future piece.

CNESA Welcomes New Member, NR Electric!

NR Electric is a leading solution provider for electric power generation, transmission, distribution and industrial customers worldwide. NR Electric is leading the world with its Smart Substation Solution, one of the world's largest protection and control products, and occupies an important position in power electronics applications and flexible HVDC. Built upon cutting-edge technologies, NR Electric serves power utilities and industrial enterprises with world-class products, all-around solutions, and superior services. NR Electric's innovative and proven solutions improve the safety, reliability, efficiency and environmental friendly of power systems.

In 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, 30 of 31 stadiums and arenas relied on NR Electric's solutions to ensure reliable electricity supply. In the 2010 Shanghai Expo, NR Electric’s solution was used to guarantee the power supply for the event. In addition, NR Electric's digital substation solution was on display to illustrate the key achievements of China's power industry technology.

NR Electric contributes to power system development worldwide, delivering solutions to over 60 countries and counting. In addition to equipment supply, NR Electric’s award-winning training program improves customers’ professional skills -- a fundamental component of successful power grid operation.

To learn more about NR Electric, visit http://www.nrec.com/en/ 

TUV Rheinland Joins CNESA

We're happy to welcome TUV Rheinland Greater China to CNESA!

About TUV Rheinland

TÜV Rheinland Greater China is a leading provider of independent testing, certification and evaluation services worldwide.  TÜV Rheinland was founded over 140 years ago and has 19,000 employees in 69 countries.  With manufacturers’ products distributed all over the world, its name has long been synonymous with safety and quality.

TÜV Rheinland Greater China established its first branch office in Taiwan in 1986 and now has more than 30 service locations in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan with nearly 3,600 employees providing professional testing and certification services for manufacturers on product safety and quality management. In addition to certification services, TÜV Rheinland Greater China provides a number of professional seminars in different fields each year to help businesses train their personnel and improve their competitiveness.

Guided by a corporate mission of achieving a balance between man, technology and the environment as well as the international trend towards environmental protection, TÜV Rheinland Greater China has been a strong proponent of green solutions in recent years. By continuing to invest and assist with the development of environment-related products, services and management systems, TUV Rheinland Greater China strives to support businesses realize their commitment to environmentally-friendly and sustainable development.

To learn more about TUV Rheinland Greater China, visit: http://www.tuv.com/en/greater_china

Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Engineering Thermophysics Receives International Patents for Supercritical CAES

Supercritical CAES (compressed air energy storage) technology independently developed and wholly owned by CNESA vice-chair member Chinese Academy of Sciences - Institute of Engineering Thermophysics (CAS IET) recently received invention patents from the EU (37 countries) and the US. This follows Chinese and Japanese patents, and is a foundation for reaching global coverage in developed countries and international partnerships in energy storage, and will greatly advance the industrialization of this technology.

Since its establishment, the Energy Storage Research and Development Center’s scientific research IP protection efforts produced many patents. In the last four years, the center applied for 101 patents and has received 64 - including 19 design patents and 45 utility patents. The Center has built a core IP portfolio centered on compressed air energy storage technology, include advanced CAES, high pressure compressors, advanced cryo and heat storage technology, and high-load expanders. According to the National Science Library's 2014 statistics, the Center ranks 4th in the world in CAES patents (1st among research institutes), and 1st among Chinese research institutions by a wide margin. This represents a major milestone for the Energy Storage R&D Center.

For more on the CAS IES Energy Storage Research and Development Center, please see their website: http://english.iet.cas.cn/ 

Dispatches from San Diego, pt. 4

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This is part four in a series on our trip to San Diego for the Energy Storage North America conference and expo. Here are parts one, two and three.

It’s a long flight from Beijing to California, so it’s not every day that our Chinese members have the opportunity to visit demonstration projects in the United States. We wanted to make the most of our San Diego trip, and so scheduled a trip to Borrego Springs, a community two hours away hosting a 26 megawatt solar facility and a 4.5 MWh lithium-ion battery energy storage system owned and operated by San Diego Gas & Electric. The batteries were provided and installed by Saft, with PCS from Parker and ABB.

The microgrid was funded in part by the Department of Energy and the California Energy Commission to build energy resilience in a remote community within California’s largest state park. The community’s population fluctuates between 2,500 and 10,000 residents, causing seasonal swings in load. Most importantly, the community is served by only a single transmission line strung in rugged terrain, leaving the community vulnerable to prolonged outages due to fire, lightning strikes, or floods.  

The microgrid has already proven itself as a powerful back-up system. During a planned transmission maintenance outage in May, the utility was able to switch customers to microgrid-supplied power after only a 10-minute outage. According to Jeff Mucha, project manager at SDG&E, that outage length was necessary to maintain personnel safety while flipping switches manually. The company is currently installing automation systems to make it possible to control microgrid services from SDG&E headquarters in San Diego.

This facility demonstrates the myriad values that microgrids can provide. In many ways, it was the ideal bookend to a trip that began with a visit to UC San Diego’s microgrid. One site was a telescope looking at the future technologies and business models that can help achieve grid stability and reduced carbon emissions in an urban, EV-heavy setting. The other, by contrast, showed how microgrids and energy storage can build resilience in isolated communities with plentiful solar resources.

Big thanks to Jeff Mucha and Donna Miyasako-Blanco at SDG&E, and Linda Haddock at the Borrego Springs Chamber of Commerce.

This is the final part of our blog, Dispatches from San Diego. See parts one, two, and three.

Dispatches from San Diego, pt. 3

This is part three in a series on our trip to San Diego for the Energy Storage North America conference and expo. If you haven't yet, check out parts one and two.

Today was the last day of the Energy Storage North America conference. Today's themes were grid services, finance, and technologies. We heard from grid regulators, policymakers, and technical experts, including Dr. Imre Gyuk, Energy Storage Program Manager at the Department of Energy.

Distributed Storage at the Market Edge

A morning panel featuring California policymakers focused on how distributed storage can interface in electricity markets.

The panel noted that utilities were tasked with examining the value of energy storage on their grids. At the time, utilities came back saying that the technologies were mature, economical, or proven enough for widespread use. Five years later, we’re seeing thousands of megawatts of interconnection requests for distributed storage, reflecting the effectiveness of California’s subsidies and the growing value propositions of these technologies.

During the Q&A session, a representative from Trina Solar, asked how policies can help China manage the problem of having long distances and constrained transmission between renewable generation and load centers. The simple answer given was to build more power lines. But the panelists also stressed the importance of building a diversified renewable asset base.

In a later panel, two grid experts continued the conversation about the role distributed energy storage can play on the grid edge.

James Gallagher, executive director of the New York State Smart Grid Consortium, described how New York’s Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) program is trying to better align utility practices with the goal of integrating more grid edge resources. Because New York has the oldest electrical grid in the country, REV also aims to help deal with the challenges of using older grid assets.

To do this, he said, REV is helping utilities procure distributed assets to meet their operational needs. The plan intends to introduce further market mechanisms to incentivize deployment. For example, the cost of electricity distribution is averaged across a utility’s consumer base, but in reality, the actual cost of delivery may vary by a factor of a hundred. Clarifying the actual costs of running a distribution grid gives third parties an opportunity to make a profit by introducing distributed resources like storage to locations where it is needed most.

He also touched on the issue of financing. Because increasing ratepayer fees to finance upgrades can be hard for utilities, there is an opportunity for microgrid players, who can raise money from third party sources to build and operate assets which traditionally were owned and operated by utilities. He also noted that insurance companies are becoming aware that record storms and heat waves driven by climate change are going to put community resilience to the test. Insurance companies have access to big pools of money that can finance power system upgrades, including energy storage, that build resilience in the face of global warming.

Technologies and Standards

Dr. Imre Gyuk, Energy Storage Program Manager at the US Department of Energy, gave a presentation on new technological breakthroughs in energy storage and efforts to establish better codes, standards, and regulations affecting energy storage system safety.

He highlighted work being done in energy storage at several national laboratories. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has made breakthroughs in mixed acid vanadium redox flow batteries by developing electrolyte with 80% improved temperature stability and 70% better energy density. This technology has been licensed out to several big flow battery producers, including UniEnergy, Imergy, and WattJoule.

He foresees the system cost for vanadium redox flow batteries (RFB) to fall from $325/kWh in 2015 to $275 by 2017. He also shared projections that aqueous soluble organic flow batteries will become commercially viable in the medium term, with projected system costs falling to $150/kWh by 2021.

The Department of Energy is also working to resolve energy storage safety issues. The Department has published an inventory of codes and standards to help industry players better design, install, and operate their technology. The document also provides a list of best practices to respond to incidents involving energy storage technology.

The conference finished off with free beer at a reception at the San Diego Convention Center. It struck us how large this event is – a signal that the industry is really picking up speed, especially in the United States. This year, there were over 1800 attendees, 110 exhibitors, and over 150 speakers. We’re happy to have come – we’ll certainly be back next year.

Our fourth and final part in this series takes us to Borrego Springs, where SDG&E is pioneering microgrids and solar power to bring energy resilience to an isolated community in the desert.

Dispatches from San Diego, pt. 2

This is part two in a series on our trip to San Diego for the Energy Storage North America Conference and Expo. If you haven't yet, check out part one.

The first day of the expo and conference featured our debut on the conference floor, and discussions about California's massive storage procurement and the future of solar storage.

Sharing What We Know…

Vivian Wei, director of member services, and I made the final touches CNESA’s booth on day one of the expo. We’re here to share information about our efforts to promote energy storage policies and technologies in China. CNESA member companies we saw in the crowd included Primus Power, Schneider Electric, NGK, Sifang, Today Energy, ENN Group, Parker, Trina Solar, Sumitomo Electric, Imergy, Saft, ABB, GE and more.

The expo was a great opportunity for manufacturers, integrators and other energy storage players to share their technologies and business models with potential customers. For industry associations like CNESA, this is a chance to show the world what we do, and bring new members into the fold.

…And Learning from the Experts

Conference sessions also began today, focusing on three themes: distributed energy, hot markets, and utility-scale storage.

In a utility session, representatives from California’s three largest utilities discussed what lessons can be learned from their procurement of 350+ MW of energy storage capacity. Although the representatives were in consensus that their energy storage portfolios should be diverse, commercially sustainable, and flexible, questions posed in the Q&A segment about how utilities value different energy storage technologies, both now and in the future, were left largely unanswered.

Utility representatives said that their procurement requirement standards are expected to rise in 2016, which suggests that Chinese and other international companies should find suitable and experienced local partners if they intend to bid their products into California’s electricity markets.

In a distributed energy session, three industry experts from different backgrounds looked ahead at opportunities for solar-plus-storage. The panel featured Boris von Bormann, CEO of German battery business Sonnenbatterie; Ruud Kempener, analyst at the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA); and Barbara Lockwood, general manager at a US utility, Arizona Public Service.

Ruud Kempener challenged industry watchers to expand their perspectives beyond large-scale projects in developed countries, and consider the market possibilities for small-scale solar-plus-storage projects in countries with unstable grids and low rates of electrification. He remarked that although the cost of solar-plus-storage systems are often still too high to be considered cost competitive, they hold great value by providing grid reliability and resilience. Nonetheless, in the United States and Europe, cost competitiveness is still the most critical factor for the success of solar-storage projects.

Barbara Lockwood described how her utility is restructuring rates to encourage smart energy decisions. She argued that net metering – which reduces electricity bills for solar customers by subtracting total electricity produced from the electricity consumed from the grid – doesn’t accurately reflect the cost of electricity at various times, and discourages the adoption of technologies which can help utilities keep the grid stable. Solar panels cease to produce electricity at sundown, but load remains high well into the evening. In areas with high solar penetration, this means that utilities have to quickly ramp up generation in ways which can be costly and inefficient. Lockwood claimed that new rate structures, such as demand rates – which charge a consumer a separate fee based on the level of their peak consumption during a month or year – can encourage the use of energy storage technologies to even out load spikes which can cause instability and inefficiency in the grid.

Our trip blog continues in part three, where we hear from experts on distributed storage and breakthrough technologies.

Flywheel Energy Storage

Flywheel energy storage systems store energy in the kinetic energy of fast-spinning flywheels. They have high power density, no pollutants, long lifespans, wide operational temperature ranges, and no limit on charge/discharge cycles. They are already widely used in power quality control and UPS (uninterruptible power supply) applications, grid frequency regulation, satellite power and altitude control, and rail regenerative braking.

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Figure 1: Flywheel application by number of projects (left) and installed capacity (right) since 2010

According to CNESA's project database, since 2010, there are 14 flywheel projects in planning, construction, or operation - totaling 81 MW worldwide. These are most used in frequency regulation markets, distributed generation and microgrids, and rail energy recovery. Grid frequency regulation has been the hot spot for recent flywheel application. Following the installation of the 20 MW Beacon Power flywheel system at Hazleton, PA, a pair of flywheel projects (5 MW and 2 MW) were planned for Ontario, Canada to provide frequency regulation to the Ontario electricity market (IESO). It is worth noting that in the first half of 2015, Irish company EirGrid planned a 20 MW project that would be Europe's first such flywheel installation. Following the example of the North American markets and European electric markets addressing frequency regulation resource requirements, European grid operators are recognizing flywheels as fast response resource.

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Figure 2: Global flywheel installation by company – contracted, under construction, and operational projects – since 2010

According to CNESA's project database, the major flywheel energy storage are Beacon Power, VYCON, Temporal Power, Active Power, Amber Kinetics, Boeing, and Quantum Energy. Beacon Power was founded in the 1990s, gradually transitioning from UPS to grid frequency regulation. Active Power and VYCON both primarily serve the UPS field, mainly as backup/reserve power in data centers, hospitals, and industry (esp. crane and rail car systems). Temporal Power is a Canadian company established in 2010, with most of its projects providing frequency regulation to Canadian electric markets.

Quantum Energy Storage is a newly emerging company founded in 2013, and is participating in the FractalGrid microgrid demonstration project at Camp Pendleton, near San Diego, CA.  Quantum Energy’s flywheel does not use the traditional cylindrical design, but rather is disk-shaped, less than 2 inches thick, and spins at only 6,000 RPM, compared to the 10,000 RPM speeds of Temporal and Beacon flywheels. The thinking is that lower speeds will reduce resonance damage and the possible damage caused by a wheel breakdown.

Source: Amber Kinetics, DOE Sept. 2012.

Compared to other technologies, costs remain high for flywheel energy storage, but as reflected by some firms, areas with high electricity prices like the Caribbean (about $0.40/kWh) can get payback periods of 3-5 years for flywheel systems replacing diesel generators. In several remote areas, ROI can be shortened to one year.

Compared to other countries, China's flywheel energy storage technology is lagging behind. There are, at present, no commercial or demonstration projects using flywheel energy storage. The most advanced research in this field in China is taking place at Tsinghua University, but we expect that commercial-sized installations will have to wait until Chinese regulators adopt policies that provide compensation for fast frequency response. 

China's Solar Thermal Market

In September, China's National Energy Administration released an RFP for solar thermal generation (Chinese, English). This is big news for CSP players, who are scrambling to submit applications before the deadline of October 31st.

Chinese solar industry watcher CSP Plaza estimates that about 50 project applications have been submitted, totaling around 4 GW. Among those in the running are state-owned generators (China General Nuclear, China Power Investment Corporation, China Huadian Corporation, China Huaneng Group and Shenhua Guohua), Chinese privately-owned enterprises (SUPCON, Rayspower, RoyalTech CSP and TeraSolar), and a couple of foreign entities (Abengoa and BrightSource).

Industry watchers have commented that SUPCON and TeraSolar are the only Chinese companies with the requisite technology and experience to operate these projects. China Power Investment Corporation has partnered with BrightSource before on a project in Qinghai. But the remaining contenders are almost certainly going to need to find experienced partners for a successful project.

There are a lot of unknowns about how this RFP is going to shake out, including how feed-in tariffs are to be valued and how large the procurement will end up being.

We do know that government planners originally set a 1 GW capacity target for solar thermal generation in the country's 12th five-year plan, which comes due this year. According to statistics from CSP Plaza, total operating solar thermal capacity in China at the end of 2014 was only about 17 MW, so there's a good chance this RFP is driven to speed up development to meet a separate 3 GW target set for 2020.

Current Projects in China

In 2014, construction began on a 50 MW storage plant in Delingha, Qinghai province, and a 10 MW CSP project in Dunhuang, Gansu. This year, several projects were accepted for construction and operation, the most notable being the following three:

Akesai Molten Salt CSP Project

This project, a 2 billion yuan (US$312m) parabolic trough CSP installation in Gansu, is being built by the Gansu Concentrating Solar Power Co., Ltd. (肃光热发电有限公司), with assistance from the Shenzhen Jinfan Technology Co. The project is planned to encompass 500 MW over the course of three construction phases. It will provide 5200 annual equivalent full load hours, and supply 256 GWh to the grid each year. In July 2015, construction started on an experimental platform project, which is expected to come online in March 2016. Planners expect to have 50 MW operational by August 2017. Upon construction, it will be the world’s largest commercially-operating parabolic trough molten salt CSP power station.

Honghai New Energy 300 MW Solar Plant and Equipment Factory

Dalian Honghai New Energy Technology Development Co. Ltd. (大连宏海新能源科技发展有限公司) is independently financing a 10 billion yuan (US$1.58b), 300 MW power plant located in Jiushan, Gansu province. The project will include both parabolic molten salt generation and dish Stirling systems. The project is also to be co-located with a solar generator equipment factory. Phase one will include the construction of 100 MW of smart grid-connected generation, and is expected to cost 3.8 billion yuan (US$600m). Construction will take two years, after which the project is expected to produce 585 million kilowatt-hours per year.

Dacheng Technologies 100 MW CSP Project

This project is located at a solar power industrial park in Dunhuang, Gansu. The project is owned by Dunhuang Dacheng Concentrating Solar Power Co., Ltd. (敦煌大成聚光热电有限公司) and is being built by Lanzhou Dacheng Concentrating Solar Technology Co., Ltd. (兰州大成聚光能源科技有限公司). This 110 MW project will include 16 hours of thermal storage, produce 6000 utilization hours annually, and is expected to generate 600 million kilowatt hours each year. Total investment is 3.58 billion yuan (US$560m). Construction will be completed in 2017.

In phase one, the project will have a scale of 10 MW, 16 hours of energy storage, and a total investment of 380 million yuan (US$60m). Construction on phase one began in May 2015, and is expected to be grid-connected by the first half of 2016. This will be China’s first 10 MW linear Fresnel reflector CSP project.

Research on Molten Salt-based Tower CSP

This research project, which began in May 2015, is being led by Nanjing Nanrui Solar Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (南京南瑞太阳能科技有限公司). Partner organizations include State Grid Qinghai Power Co., the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Electrical Engineering, the State Grid Smart Grid Institute, and the China Three Gorges New Energy Company. The project primarily examines tower CSP installations which include molten salt thermal storage. Researchers aim to better understand solar/thermal/electrical energy conversion mechanisms as well as methods of coordination, operation, and control. Research results will help achieve more stable and smooth solar generation, improve energy utilization, increase renewable energy consumption and dispatch, and provide theoretical foundations and technical support.

In terms of geographical distribution, these projects are located in China’s solar-rich western region, particularly in Jiuquan, Gansu, where local government policies have supported renewable energy development and the solar thermal industry.

From a technological perspective, the aforementioned projects all include molten salt thermal storage systems in order to provide around-the-clock power. These projects also aren’t restricted to tower or parabolic CSP, but rather include other concentrating solar power technologies such as dish Sterling and linear Fresnel reflectors.

Most of the investment for these projects is coming from the private sector.

According to the China National Solar Thermal Energy Alliance, the potential power from solar thermal in China is around 16,000 GW. This suggests that the potential market for solar thermal generation could be in the trillions of yuan, which places these early movers in an advantageous position in this developing market.

At present, solar thermal generation in China is in a development/demonstration stage. The largest solar thermal plant in China is a 10 MW tower CSP facility owned by Supcon. Although China is technologically on par with the rest of the world, a number of factors are constraining the potential for commercialization of this technology. The government has not released a set solar thermal feed-in tariff. There is a lack of experience in project construction, operation, maintenance, and system integration. Product quality has also not be commercially proven in-country.

Future Policy Directions

In consideration of China’s national circumstances and experience with the solar industry, there are solutions to these problems on both the pilot and commercial levels. In the pilot phase, efforts should be made to improve capacity in R&D, system integration, and maintenance. This is also the time to gradually establish quality standards and control systems. In the process of scaling up, work is needed to bring technologies, system integration, and installation design and operation to maturity. Additionally, feed-in tariffs are needed to bring about commercialization of solar thermal generation in China.

Last year, the Price Bureau of the National Development and Reform Commission approved the country’s first feed-in tariff for a solar thermal pilot project, set at 1.2 yuan per kWh. Although this tariff only applies to the Supcon tower CSP pilot project in Delingha, Qinghai, the measure has boosted the solar thermal industry and attracted private investment. A number of listed companies and private enterprises with strong finances have begun to position themselves in the market. By acquiring pilot project technologies and building up experience, they hope to gain an advantage in the solar thermal generation market.

As policies begin to emerge, we expect the solar thermal generation market to make big gains in the next one to two years. 

Energy Storage in Vermont, ISO-NE, and the Rutland Energy City of the Future

Many states and cities have been pushing forward with new energy policies to accommodate higher amounts of distributed generation and are making use of energy storage. We look at Vermont, which was one of four states cited by the DOEs Energy Storage Program Manager, Dr. Imre Gyuk, in his presentation on US energy storage this May.

Rutland, Vermont. Photo: Shawn Pemrick

Green Mountain Power (GMP), the utility that covers most of Vermont, has been operating most of its pilot programs in the town of Rutland, home of the Rutland Energy City of the Future. The project is experimenting with energy storage and other distributed resources, being among the first markets to introduce a streamlined connection policy. It piloted Ice Energy air conditioning units to test their ability to achieve peak shaving. In 2014, GMP quadrupled the amount of net metered resources it would allow on its grid.

The utility and city made headlines again recently when announcing their intention to purchase and incorporate a large number of Tesla Powerwalls to reduce peak demand and provide savings to customers. This will also offer much greater energy independence to some customers, making it an interesting move by the utility. The delivery of the Powerwall units to customers’ homes will begin in October. GMP will partner with users in offering product incentives and on-bill financing. This will ensure that the value brought to the grid by the customers’ use of the Powerwalls is accurately reflected in their monthly bills.

The other major project in the city is the Stafford Hill Solar Farm, composed of a 2.5MW solar PV installation and a 4 MW/4.4 MWh battery energy storage system (2 MW/2 MWh Li-ion battery + 2 MW/2.4 MWh lead-acid battery). This project is managed by the Clean Energy States Alliance and Sandia National Laboratories, and involves the State of Vermont, US DOE Office of Electricity, and Energy Storage Technology Advancement Partnership (ESTAR).  The energy storage component of the project cost $4M. The project is meant to provide backup power to one of the first microgrids to be powered solely by solar and battery power without other fuel sources.

The Rutland Energy City of the Future initiative is in part of an economic move to help boost employment and make use of existing resources after an electric office left town, consolidating with another office in another location.   

Frequency regulation in New England’s market, ISO-NE, has been the slowest and most conservative in terms of transitioning to pay-for-performance frequency regulation structures.  When FERC ordered the ISOs to submit proposals for such market structures, ISO-NE’s was rejected twice, and their implementation date was pushed back to March 2015 while the other ISO began implementation in 2012-2014. Currently there are three projects totaling 975 kW of fast frequency regulation in ISO-NE: two heat thermal pilot projects by VCharge, and Beacon Power’s first flywheel demonstration plant. 

As new policies and business models emerge from the ISO-NE market, from Green Mountain Power, and the Rutland Energy City of the Future, CNESA will continue monitoring and reporting.

California’s Integrated Demand Side Management Proposal

California’s utility regulators are proposing to take the grid a step further towards the edge.

Earlier this September, CPUC Commissioner Mike Florio released a proposal that would represent the next step towards larger deployments of grid-connected distributed energy resources (DER).

This summer saw California’s major utilities each present a Distributed Resource Plan. These explored how distributed energy resources could provide value to grid operators. Commissioner Florio’s new proposal aims to clarify how that value can be passed on to consumers through novel pricing signals and other mechanisms. This proposal, the “Decision Adopting an Expanded Scope, a Definition, and a Goal for the Integration of Demand Side Resources,” set a new goal to integrate demand side resources “that provide optimal customer and system benefits, while enabling California to reach its climate objectives.”

According to Greentech Media, the proposed decision was the result of workshops that included CNESA partner, the California Energy Storage Alliance, among other advocacy, business, and regulatory organizations.

While the actual mechanisms for compensating and sourcing demand side resources that perform grid services are yet to be discussed in future workshops, this proposal marks a further step for California on the path towards integrating demand side resources into the grid. Stem’s policy director, Ted Ko, remarked in a CPUC meeting that the proposal could allow utilities to look to their customers to provide grid services like capacity, ramping, and voltage support.

Nonetheless, some participants expressed concerns about the scope of the proposal. In particular, utilities and CAISO, the California grid operator, asked for clarification about the risks involved with decentralizing grid resources. If the resources don’t show up when they’re needed, who should be responsible? How should mechanisms be designed to ensure that the electric system is reliable?

To answer remaining questions about how specific mechanisms should be designed, the CPUC will hold further workshops. In a later phase, the Commission will look at potential pilot programs to provide data on sourcing and pricing mechanisms. 

Sacred Sun to Provide Energy Storage for Hebei Renewables Pilot

By Sacred Sun

July 29th, 2015 – In a press conference in Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced that the Zhangjiakou City Renewable Energy Demonstration Zone Development Plan has been approved by the State Council, formally establishing the Zhangjiakou Renewable Energy Demonstration Zone.

The Plan confirms that renewable energy development is a top priority development goal across the world. By 2020, renewables should account for 30% of final energy consumption. By 2030, that number will rise to 50%.

The Plan summarized its goals with the label “3-4-5.” The Plan should promote “3 Innovations”: systems and mechanisms, commercial models, and technology. It should implement “4 Projects,” including scalable development, high-capacity storage applications, smart transmission systems, and diversified application demonstrations. And the Plan should create “5 Functional Zones”: an Olympic special zone, a renewable energy innovation city, a renewable energy-integrated commercial zone, a high-end equipment manufacturing agglomeration, and a rural renewable energy recycling demonstration site.

The high-capacity storage application project aims to set high-capacity battery storage as a foremost technology in scaled energy storage pilots. The Plan supports a variety of renewables-plus-storage demonstrations, and supports financing for the construction and operation of energy storage installations for generators, consumers, and energy storage companies. This will help support the large-scale development of renewables at the demonstration site.

Shandong Sacred Sun Power Sources Co., Ltd. is a leading provider of high-capacity battery energy storage systems. In 2014, Sacred Sun introduced Japanese lead-carbon battery manufacturer Furukawa Battery Co.’s globally-recognized technology, product design, and manufacturing experience to China. Sacred Sun produces high-capacity, deep cycling, and long-lived FCP lead-carbon batteries. Sacred Sun’s batteries feature a lifespan of over 4200 cycles at 70% depth-of-discharge. When fully considering procurement costs and residual value from recycling, the cost of Sacred Sun FCP lead-acid batteries drops to $0.08 per kilowatt-hour of delivered power.

In 2014, Sacred Sun was named “China’s Most Influential Energy Storage Enterprise,” thanks to its innovative, high-capacity FCP lead-acid batteries. Sacred Sun is striving to help the Zhangjiakou Renewable Energy Demonstration Project meet its goals.​