Utility energy storage life degradation estimation method

Energy Storage installations have been used in electric utilities for a few decades now. The primary applications of energy storage in utilities include grid stabilization, back-up power and peak shaving, while other potential applications include arbitrage, reduction in renewable variability and frequency regulation. Selection of the appropriate energy storage system for each of the above applications depends on the power/energy ratio requirement, along with the cost, lifetime and other technical challenges. This paper presents a matrix that evaluates the state-of-art energy storage technologies for various utility applications. The characteristics of energy storage systems required for these applications and challenges inherent in the design of such systems are also summarized in this paper. A specific methodology used for analyzing and optimizing the size of the battery energy storage system for frequency regulation is discussed in detail. The same methodology can be extended to the selection of the most optimum technology for other utility applications.