Unit-II

Needs for Electrical Energy Storage

The roles of electrical energy storage technologies in electricity use

overload, operational accidents) stop electricity can help realize an environmentally friendly transport
supply and potentially influence wide areas. system without using conventional combustion
engines.
EES will help users when power network failures occur
by continuing to supply power to consumers. One of
the representative industries utilizing EES is semi- 1.3 Emerging needs for EES
conductor and LCD manufacturing, where a voltage
There are two major emerging market needs for
sag lasting for even a few milliseconds impacts the
EES as a key technology: to utilize more renewable
quality of the products. A UPS system, built on EES
energy and less fossil fuel, and the future Smart
and located at a customer’s site, can keep supplying
Grid.
electricity to critical loads even when voltage sag
occurs due to, for example, a direct lightning strike on
distribution lines. A portable battery may also serve as 1.3.1 More renewable energy, less fossil
an emergency resource to provide power to electrical fuel
appliances.
On-grid areas

In on-grid areas, the increased ratio of renewable

1.2.4 Congestion in power grids
generation may cause several issues in the power
This issue is a consequence of the previous grid (see Figure 1-2). First, in power grid operation,
problem, a long distance between generation and the fluctuation in the output of renewable generation
consumption. The power flow in transmission grids is makes system frequency control difficult, and
determined by the supply and demand of electricity. if the frequency deviation becomes too wide
In the process of balancing supply and demand system operation can deteriorate. Conventionally,
power congestion can occur. Utility companies try frequency control is mostly managed by the
to predict future congestion and avoid overloads, output change capability of thermal generators.
for example by dispatching generators’ outputs or When used for this purpose thermal generators
ultimately by building new transmission routes. EES are not operated at full capacity, but with some
established at appropriate sites such as substations positive and negative output margin (i.e. increases
at the ends of heavily-loaded lines can mitigate and decreases in output) which is used to adjust
congestion, by storing electricity while transmission frequency, and this implies inefficient operation.
lines maintain enough capacity and by using it With greater penetration of renewable generation
when lines are not available due to congestion. This this output margin needs to be increased, which
approach also helps utilities to postpone or suspend decreases the efficiency of thermal generation even
the reinforcement of power networks. more. Renewable generation units themselves in
most cases only supply a negative margin 3. If EES
can mitigate the output fluctuation, the margins of
1.2.5 Transmission by cable thermal generators can be reduced and they can be
Electricity always needs cables for transmission, operated at a higher efficiency.
and supplying electricity to mobile applications and
Secondly, renewable energy output is undepend-
to isolated areas presents difficulties. EES systems
able since it is affected by weather conditions.
such as batteries can solve this problem with their
Some measures are available to cope with this.
mobile and charge/discharge capabilities. In remote
places without a power grid connection recharging 3
With extra investment in advanced control schemes and
an electric vehicle may present a challenge, but EES regulation they can also be made to provide a positive
margin.

3
The roles of electrical energy storage technologies in electricity use

CO2 reduction Independence from fossil fuels

“More renewable energy,

less fossil fuel”

On-Grid Area Off-Grid Area

Renewable generation EV powered by electricity
from less or non-fossil
energy sources

Electrical Energy Storage

Power fluctuation Undependability

Difficult to maintain Difficult to meet power
power output demand

Electrical Energy Storage Electrical Energy Storage

(EES) (EES)
Stabilize wind and PV Increases self
output in low, medium consumption of dispersed
PV energy in house-
and high voltage grids
holds for low voltage
grid release
Time shifting of wind
Partial load operation of and PV energy in low
thermal power generation and medium voltage grid
(inefficient operation)

Excessive RE installation
to secure enough
generation capacity

Reinforce transmission
facilities to cover wider
area to utilize wind farms
smoothing effects

Figure 1-2 | Problems in renewable energy installation and possible solutions (TEPCO)

4
The roles of electrical energy storage technologies in electricity use

One is to increase the amount of renewable gen- as a mobile, distributed energy resource to provide
eration installed, i.e. provide overcapacity, so that a load-shifting function in a smart grid. EVs are
even with undependability enough power can be expected to be not only a new load for electricity
secured. Another is to spread the installations of but also a possible storage medium that could
renewable generators over a wide area, to take ad- supply power to utilities when the electricity price
vantage of weather conditions changing from place is high.
to place and of smoothing effects expected from
A third role expected for EES is as the energy
the complementarity of wind and solar generators.
storage medium for Energy Management Systems
These measures are possible only with large num-
(EMS) in homes and buildings. With a Home Energy
bers of installations and extension of transmission
Management System, for example, residential
networks. Considering the cost of extra renewable
customers will become actively involved in modifying
generation and the difficulty of constructing new
their energy spending patterns by monitoring their
transmission facilities, EES is a promising alterna-
actual consumption in real time. EMSs in general will
tive measure.
need EES, for example to store electricity from local
Off-grid areas generation when it is not needed and discharge it
when necessary, thus allowing the EMS to function
In off-grid areas where a considerable amount of
optimally with less power needed from the grid.
energy is consumed, particularly in the transport
sector, fossil energy should be replaced with less
or non-fossil energy in such products as plug-in 1.4 The roles of electrical energy
hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) or electric vehicles storage technologies
(EVs) (see Figure 1-2). More precisely, fossil fuels
Generally the roles for on-grid EES systems can
should be replaced by low-carbon electricity
be described by the number of uses (cycles)
produced mainly by renewable generation. The
and the duration of the operation, as shown in
most promising solution is to replace petrol or
Figure 1-3. For the maintenance of voltage quality
diesel-driven cars by electric ones with batteries.
(e.g. compensation of reactive power), EES with
In spite of remaining issues (short driving distance
high cycle stability and short duration at high power
and long charging time) EES is the key technology
output is required; for time shifting on the other
for electric vehicles.
hand longer storage duration and fewer cycles are
needed. The following sections describe the roles
1.3.2 Smart Grid uses in detail.

EES is expected to play an essential role in the

future Smart Grid. Some relevant applications of 1.4.1 The roles from the viewpoint of
EES are described below. a utility
First, EES installed in customer-side substations 1) Time shifting
can control power flow and mitigate congestion, or
Utilities constantly need to prepare supply
maintain voltage in the appropriate range.
capacity and transmission/distribution lines to
Secondly, EES can support the electrification of cope with annually increasing peak demand,
existing equipment so as to integrate it into the and consequently develop generation stations
Smart Grid. Electric vehicles (EVs) are a good that produce electricity from primary energy. For
example since they have been deployed in several some utilities generation cost can be reduced by
regions, and some argue for the potential of EVs storing electricity at off-peak times, for example at

5
The roles of electrical energy storage technologies in electricity use

night, and discharging it at peak times. If the gap 3) Making more efficient use of the network
in demand between peak and off-peak is large,
In a power network, congestion may occur when
the benefit of storing electricity becomes even
transmission/distribution lines cannot be reinforced
larger. Using storage to decrease the gap between
in time to meet increasing power demand. In this
daytime and night-time may allow generation output
case, large-scale batteries installed at appropriate
to become flatter, which leads to an improvement
substations may mitigate the congestion and
in operating efficiency and cost reduction in fuel.
thus help utilities to postpone or suspend the
For these reasons many utilities have constructed
reinforcement of the network.
pumped hydro, and have recently begun installing
large-scale batteries at substations. 4) Isolated grids

2) Power quality Where a utility company supplies electricity within

a small, isolated power network, for example on
A basic service that must be provided by power
an island, the power output from small-capacity
utilities is to keep supply power voltage and
generators such as diesel and renewable energy
frequency within tolerance, which they can
must match the power demand. By installing EES
do by adjusting supply to changing demand.
the utility can supply stable power to consumers.
Frequency is controlled by adjusting the output
of power generators; EES can provide frequency 5) Emergency power supply for protection and
control functions. Voltage is generally controlled control equipment
by taps of transformers, and reactive power with A reliable power supply for protection and control
phase modifiers. EES located at the end of a is very important in power utilities. Many batteries
heavily loaded line may improve voltage drops by are used as an emergency power supply in case
discharging electricity and reduce voltage rises by of outage.
charging electricity.

Duration
0,1 s 1s 15 s 1 min 15 min 1h 8h

1 / month
Electricity supply
Number of uses

reserve
1 / day
Timeshift
12 / day
Primary
Regulation
30 / h

Power
30 / min
Quality

5 / sec

Figure 1-3 | Different uses of electrical energy storage in grids, depending on the frequency
and duration of use [eus06]

6
The roles of electrical energy storage technologies in electricity use

1.4.2 The roles from the viewpoint of 1.4.3 The roles from the viewpoint of
consumers generators of renewable energy

1) Time shifting/cost savings 1) Time shifting

Power utilities may set time-varying electricity Renewable energy such as solar and wind power
prices, a lower price at night and a higher one is subject to weather, and any surplus power may
during the day, to give consumers an incentive to be thrown away when not needed on the demand
flatten electricity load. Consumers may then reduce side. Therefore valuable energy can be effectively
their electricity costs by using EES to reduce peak used by storing surplus electricity in EES and using
power needed from the grid during the day and to it when necessary; it can also be sold when the
buy the needed electricity at off-peak times. price is high.

2) Emergency power supply 2) Effective connection to grid

Consumers may possess appliances needing The output of solar and wind power generation
continuity of supply, such as fire sprinklers and varies greatly depending on the weather and wind
security equipment. EES is sometimes installed as speeds, which can make connecting them to the
a substitute for emergency generators to operate grid difficult. EES used for time shift can absorb
during an outage. Semiconductor and liquid- this fluctuation more cost-effectively than other,
crystal manufacturers are greatly affected by single-purpose mitigation measures (e.g. a phase
even a momentary outage (e.g. due to lightning) shifter).
in maintaining the quality of their products. In
these cases, EES technology such as large-scale
batteries, double-layer capacitors and SMES can
be installed to avoid the effects of a momentary
outage by instantly switching the load off the
network to the EES supply. A portable battery may
also serve in an emergency to provide power to
electrical appliances.

3) Electric vehicles and mobile appliances

Electric vehicles (EVs) are being promoted for CO 2

reduction. High-performance batteries such as
nickel cadmium, nickel metal hydride and lithium
ion batteries are mounted on EVs and used as
power sources. EV batteries are also expected
to be used to power in-house appliances in
combination with solar power and fuel cells; at the
same time, studies are being carried out to see
whether they can usefully be connected to power
networks. These possibilities are often abbreviated
as “V2H” (vehicle to home) and “V2G” (vehicle to
grid).