Advancements in electricity storage are moving the technology from a future concept to an accepted tool of today’s smart grid. To date, a single, independent source of relevant information on the issues and questions being raised by the rapidly advancing technology has been lacking. “The Promise of Energy Storage” guidebook is filling this void. 

Today’s power systems need to make room for more renewable energy—both distributed and centralized. Smart grid technologies help make the room needed in the power system. And storage can help complete the picture by addressing the intermittent availability of renewables.

In the long-term, the implications of widespread, mass deployment of electricity storage across the power system are profound. Across the globe, utilities, developers, governmental agencies, and consumers are turning their attention to the potential being offered by advanced electricity storage technologies.

So what’s the game plan for wide-scale utility application of energy storage technology?

KEMA has released the first independent guidebook on assessing, building the business case and integrating wide-scale energy storage in the electric power infrastructure. “The Promise of Energy Storage,” explores the issues and questions surrounding the rapidly advancing technology. It provides a broad assessment of the electricity storage field and the latest thinking about applications. It also describes how to assess when there is a good business case for storage and when there is not—and examines the implications of including storage in grid design and operation, the economics of storage, and the policy issues being raised.

The guidebook was created specifically to help advance the process for assessing when there is a good business case for storage and when there is not. Specific application cases and methodologies for determining their cost-benefits are spelled out. Policy issues that improve the case and overall cost-benefit are identified. And the guidebook identifies how related trends in energy – RPS standards, smart grid, micro grids – all link to, and can benefit from, the inclusion of storage in grid design and operation.

Additional information on “The Promise of Energy Storage” – including a summary and where to buy the guidebook – is available at http://www.kema.com/services/consulting/utility-future/energy-storage-guidebook.aspx.