overview of energy storage research in the...

Professor Nigel Brandon OBE FREng

Director, Energy Futures Lab

Chair, Sustainable Development in Energy

RCUK Energy Senior Research Fellow

Director, Hydrogen and Fuel Cell SUPERGEN Hub

www.imperial.ac.uk/energyfutureslab

Overview of Energy Storage Research in the UK

UK-China study on Future of Energy Storage

His Excellency Liu

Xiaoming, Ambassador of

the People’s Republic of

China to UK, at the first

UK/SINO Energy Storage

workshop in London.

His Excellency Liu

Xiaoming, Ambassador of

the People’s Republic of

China to UK, at the first

UK/SINO Energy Storage

workshop in London,

January 2011.

Professor Jinghai Li FREng, VP CAS, addresses the 2nd

UK/SINO Energy Storage Workshop in Beijing in May 2011..

Content

• Brief introduction to the UK context.

• The value of storage to the UK for future low carbon

energy systems.

• The UK innovation landscape.

• Summary of current major energy storage research

programmes in the UK.

• Key messages.

Why is the UK interested in grid scale storage?

•Major transitions are anticipated in the UK energy landscape out

to 2050.

•Increasing deployment of intermittent wind and inflexible nuclear

into the UK generation mix.

•Rising penetration of electricity as a low carbon energy vector

into heat and transport.

•Recognition of the cost and infrastructure challenges.

•This is driving interest is new energy storage technologies, e.g.

novel batteries, flow batteries, compressed air, thermal storage,

mechanical storage, and power to gas (H2, CH4, ..), coupled with

their integration into low carbon energy systems, to optimise the

economic, security and sustainability benefits to the UK.

Energy storage has become of significant interest to UK

policy makers, industry, and researchers.

Content



energy systems.




• Key messages.

Whole Systems Analysis of the Value of Storage

• Whole systems analysis of the benefits that storage brings to

the energy system against a range of future low carbon energy

scenarios. This approach reveals trade-offs between different

services, which storage can provide.

• Storage technologies are represented through generic

properties, such as round trip efficiency, storage duration (the

ratio of energy and power capacity), geographical location and

voltage level on the network it connects to (also referred to as

bulk or distributed storage).

• A full report* on the study can be found at

http://www.carbontrust.com/media/129310/energy-storage-

systems-role-value-strategic-assessment.pdf

*Strategic assessment of the role and value of energy storage systems in the UK Low Carbon Energy Future, Report for Carbon

Trust; G Strbac et al, (2012) Energy Futures Lab Imperial College London.

http://www.carbontrust.com/media/129310/energy-storage-systems-role-value-strategic-assessment.pdf













Key Highlights from the Analysis

• The optimal location for bulk storage in the UK is in Scotland,

where it supports the integration of wind and avoids additional

transmission reinforcement with northern England. Distributed

storage is predominantly located on networks in high demand

regions in Southern GB, especially in conjunction with a high

uptake of electrified transport and heating.

• The value of storage in the UK increases markedly towards

2030 and further towards 2050. Carbon constraints for 2030 and

2050 can be met at reduced costs when storage is available.

For bulk storage cost of £50 per kW per year, the optimal

volume deployed grows from 2 GW in 2020 to 25 GW in 2050.

The equivalent system savings can reach over £10bn per year

in 2050.

Strategic assessment of the role and value of energy storage systems in the UK Low Carbon Energy Future, Report for Carbon


Energy vs Power

The value of storage is not strongly affected by

increases in storage duration beyond 6 hours

(shown here is a 10 GW case in base case

scenario in 2030). Distributed storage initially

gains more from an increase in energy at a

given power than bulk storage.

Low cost solutions are needed in both cases as

energy requirements increase.



Fast storage for frequency regulation

Although the market for

fast storage (e.g.

flywheels, supercaps), is

not as large as bulk or

distributed storage, the

value and savings are

substantial and come

from a significantly

reduced need to run

conventional generation

part loaded and hence

enhanced capability of

the system to absorb

renewable generation.



Flexible generation and low fuel costs reduce

the value of fast storage

Predicted duty cycles for grid scale application

Two predicted patterns of storage

use in a future low carbon grid,

showing state of charge against

time in hours. The upper curve

illustrates the pattern of use for a

more distributed storage system,

with 6 hours of storage capacity.

This equates to around 350 deep

cycles per annum

The lower curve shows the

pattern of use for a more bulk

storage system, with 48 hours of

storage capacity. This equates to

around 250 shallow cycles per

annum.



What do we learn from this? • No one storage technology meets all the requirements – a portfolio of

storage technologies are therefore likely to be needed tailored to given

applications.

• It is the lowest cost of delivering the storage function that matters rather than

the efficiency.

• Lifetime and technology risk are both important factors in determining the

effective cost of storage.

• Up to 3 to 6 hours of storage time appears to be optimum for both bulk and

distributed storage from a value perspective. The reduced value of storage as

energy is increased means that low cost solutions that decouple power and

energy are required as energy requirements increase.

• Careful attention to control strategies and the management of energy

storage systems will be required to optimise the way storage technologies are

used and controlled in the system to maximise lifetime and value.

• The optimum design and operation of future low carbon energy systems

needs to take into account both the storage and the system characteristics.

Content



energy systems.




• Key messages.

BIS: R&D facilities

RC: networks Grand Challenge,

Supergen etc

Ofgem LCNF

ETI elec. storage investment

DECC SBRI energy storage

DECC adv. heat storage

EERA En. St. JP D

ECC

en

. sto

rage

R

&D

/fea

s.

Lead org. initiative

Other participants

DECC EMR?

TSB

gra

nts

http://www.energyresearchpartnership.org.uk/tiki-index.php?page=ESresearchdevelopments for updates.

Study for CT:

role& value of

elec stor. Study for DECC:

balancing

challenge

UK Energy Storage Initiatives Research Development Demonstration Early Deploy Commercial

Aca

dem

ia

Ind

ust

ry

Po

licy

/ re

gu

lati

on

http://www.energyresearchpartnership.org.uk/tiki-index.php?page=ESresearchdevelopments



Content



energy systems.




• Key messages.

RCUK funded activities in grid scale

energy storage

• Grand challenge programme in grid scale energy storage:

• Energy Storage for Low carbon Grids, £5.5M 5 years starting Oct 1st 2012. PI

Goran Strbac (Imperial). Co-I’s N Brandon, R Green (Imperial), P Taylor, J Bialek

(Durham), P Bruce (St Andrews), C Grey (Cambridge), P Grant (Oxford), D Rogers

(Cardiff), X Guo (UCL), Y Ding (Leeds), P Hall (Sheffield).

• Integrated, Market-fit and Affordable Grid-scale Energy Storage (IMAGES), £3M 5

years starting Sep1st 2012. PI Jihong Wang (Warwick). Co-I’s P Mawby, R Critoph,

M Waterson, R MacKay (Warwick), D Evans, A Milodowski, J Busby (BGS), M

Thomson, P Eames (L’boro), S Garvey, M Giulietti (Nottingham),

• SUPERGEN energy storage, £3.4M, ends Feb 2014, PI S Islam (Bath). Co-I’s P

Bruce (St Andrews), P Grant (Oxford), C Grey (Cambridge), R Slade (Surrey), R Dunn

(Bath), A Cruden (Southampton), K Scott (Newcastle), P Hall (Sheffield).

• Energy Storage Research Network, £490k, 3 years starting Oct 1st 2012. PI N

Brandon, Co-I G Offer (Imperial).

• £30M call for capital funding for grid scale storage recently announced.

EPSRC funded grand challenge in

energy storage for low Carbon Grids

£5.5M 5 year programme funded by EPSRC, starting Oct 1st 2012.

Programme links the modelling and analysis of network, control and storage

technologies with research into four storage technologies; novel redox flow

batteries, sodium ion batteries, manufacturing large scale supercapacitors,

and materials for thermal storage.

Integrated Market-fit Affordable Grid scale Energy Storage

J Wang, M Waterson, R MacKay, M Giullietti

P Mawby, R Critoph

S Garvey

D Evans, J Busby, A Milodowski

P Eames, M Thomson

PACSRLab

Industrial Partners: E.OM, National Grid, GE, Alstom. Rolls –Royce,

Gateways, Costin,, PnuPower, INEOS, Gaelectric, Saipem Sa, Altas Copco

Technology breakthrough – CAES :

- to avoid involvement of fossil fuel

- to improve the round trip efficiency

- to gain a clear picture of national storage resources

- to study the methodology of engineering storage

- to map the storage with the renewable power

generation locations

To maximise

renewable

energy

penetration

Technology innovation:

- to research innovative HTTS technology

- to find the cheap materials for HTTS

- to improve energy efficiency by direct conversion

- to develop innovative technology for combination

of CAES and HTTS

To turn inflexible

CCS and nuclear

plants to flexible

plants

Technology for potential deployment

What we aim to achieve :

PACSRLab

Support

Support

What the project aims to achieve :

Economic analysis :

- to reveal the multi-dimensional true values of ES

- to identify the way for maximising the value of ES

Policy makers

Investors

Network analysis:

- to clarify the role of ES from demand and supply balance

- to exam network operation rule for ES integration

Regulations

Operators

Techno-economic-network analysis:

- to derive a matrix of performance/cost of ES

- to exam technical characteristics for network integration

Guidance for

technology

development

To provide essential information to government policy

makers and regulation bodies

To support UK industry for technology development

PACSRLab

Support

Support

Support

• No one technology is likely to meet all the requirements for grid scale storage

– therefore it is important that a range of storage technologies are supported

and developed.

•In the short term it is essential that demonstration programmes are put in place

that explore the relationship between duty cycle, location in the network, control

strategies, grid interfaces and technology characteristics, so we can learn about

performance, failure mechanisms, and lifetime.

•In the medium to longer term we must continue to innovate to develop lower

cost and fit for purpose storage technologies focussed onto grid scale

applications, including their management and control – there is significant

scope for innovation in this space.

•And we must continue to explore the whole systems approach so that the

economic and environmental value of storage can be properly understood in

the context of future low carbon energy systems, such that the lowest cost and

lowest carbon system can be developed, and appropriate policy and market

mechanisms put in place.

Summary

Thank you

[email protected]

www.imperial.ac.uk/energyfutureslab

overview of energy storage research in the...

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