December 7, 2021
Storage is key to a clean and affordable energy future
This is a guest blog post from Eaton.
The biggest changes to energy infrastructure in more than a century are underway. And energy storage is playing a critical role – helping commercial and industrial businesses put power systems to work in ways to unlock a more resilient, low-carbon future.
According to Wood Mackenzie, last year was record-setting for global energy storage with installed capacity increasing by 51%. Moreover, the analyst anticipates the market to grow 27 times by 2030 with 70 GWh of new energy storage capacity added every year. This growth is driven by powerful trends.
For one, electricity consumption is expected to increase 50% by 2050, propelled by the electrification of buildings and transport. At the same time, large-scale power outages increased 67% over the past two decades. In other words, demand for electricity is increasing while power reliability has declined.
In my view, energy storage can play a critical role to help commercial and industrial organizations take more control of their energy supplies and make their energy systems work harder and smarter. Yielding powerful benefits:
- Lowering carbon footprint by helping maximize renewable consumption
- Gaining new revenue streams via selling excess energy back to the local utility
- Optimizing energy usage to cut costs even as energy needs increase
- Advancing resilience to power operations during grid disruptions
Transform dormant energy assets
Uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) are used across critical applications to ensure power continuity in the event of an outage or anomaly. The vast majority of the time, these battery backup systems idle until the electric utility supply is interrupted.
New technology enables organizations to transform these emergency power assets into intelligent grid-connected storage by fully using UPS battery and power capacity to maximize investment. This empowers organizations to generate a return on their investments in UPS technology, while maintaining the primary battery backup functionality. The UPS owner controls stored energy and can choose how much capacity to offer and when to offer it.
EnergyAware technology enables commercial and industrial organizations to take more control of their energy while unlocking a host of new functionalities for traditional UPS technology:
- Demand charge management by discharging energy at peak times
- Frequency regulation by charging and discharging batteries to help stabilize the grid
- Time-of-use optimization shifts energy consumption to avoid peak energy usage
- Asset aggregation, enabling organizations to manage multiple assets to work as a single entity
- Boosting renewable integration by helping utilities balance fluctuations in generation and consumption
- Increasing revenues by providing capacity back to the grid to support frequency regulation
- Demand response participation through reductions in power usage
- Advancing sustainability, enabling organizations to use the extended battery capacity to offset diesel generator usage
Technology pilot project with EnergyAware UPS
A recent project shows how UPSs can be put to work around the clock, serving as a distributed energy resource. An added layer of software algorithms and controls enables interaction with the power grid. Serving in this role, the UPSs can provide and receive energy from the grid, optimizing utility bills and support frequency regulation—creating a new revenue stream.
Meet surging energy demand without adding costs or major infrastructure upgrades
Energy storage can help organizations address increasing energy demand without major infrastructure upgrades. This is a big benefit as electrification of building systems and transport is expected to cause sharp increases in electricity demand. Meaning that most existing electrical infrastructure won’t be sized to support new energy requirements.
Energy storage systems designed for commercial and industrial applications can address rising energy demand by providing on-demand energy when facilities need the most. During peak periods, energy storage systems can discharge, providing supplement energy storage on site. When there’s less energy demand and rates are at their lowest, energy storage systems can recharge.
Importantly, energy storage can power commercial and industrial operations through new peaks without the hassle, cost and delays that come with infrastructure upgrades.
Energy storage is essential to solving increasing energy demand and declining electrical reliability. The benefits of energy storage systems are powerful:
- Supporting continuous peak shaving and electric vehicle fast charging
- Enabling continuous monitoring, remote analytics to provide critical data
- Creating new opportunities to enroll in energy market programs (like demand response and frequency regulation) to earn extra revenue
Energy storage is essential
We require a lot of power today. In the future, we’ll need even more. Energy storage technologies can help existing infrastructure work harder and provide new control over energy systems—better managing peak energy demand, reducing impact to electrical infrastructure and enabling new revenue from grid support. It’s a critical tool to help address complex energy challenges by supporting smarter, more effective energy management. And the impact of using power more intelligently will help commercial and industrials accelerate decarbonization, boost business and production continuity, and control steadily rising energy costs
Visit Eaton.com/energytransition to learn more.