Conventional Generation | Peak Demand | Renewables & UPS
Power failures cost the US economy $104 billion a year—spikes, drops, and fluctuations in power quality cost an additional $15 billion, according to the Electrical Power Research Institute. Much of this cost could be saved with effective use of electricity storage.
In the absence of commercially available electricity storage, power plants and utilities have been forced to rely on gas and diesel-powered generators placed close to users to supply peak demand. But these often combine very poor thermal efficiency (between 20 to 32 percent) with high outputs of CO2, NOx, and SOx.
Replacing these carbon-intensive technologies with locally-installed electricity storage systems has the potential to transform the electricity supply by delivering better utilization of remote, base-load generation. Excess off-peak generating capacity could be used by storing electricity close to demand. Such a scenario would also improve:
- plant utilization;
- generation efficiency;
- transmission line utilization and deferral;
- back-up and emergency capacity.
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