Carbon Trust

The Carbon Trust commissioned a study entitled ‘Strategic Assessment of the Role and Value of Energy Storage Systems in the UK Low Carbon Energy Future’ from the Energy Futures Lab at Imperial College London. The report was published in July 2012, and is available at http://www.carbontrust.com/resources/reports/technology/energy-storage-systems-strategic-assessment-role-and-value.

The key high-level findings were:

• The values presented in this report tend to be higher than previous studies suggest
• The value of storage increases markedly towards 2030 and further towards 2050
• The value of storage is the highest in pathways with a large share of RES, where storage can deliver significant operational savings through reducing renewable generation curtailment
• A few hours of storage are sufficient to reduce peak demand and thereby capture significant value
• Distributed energy storage can significantly contribute to reducing distribution network reinforcement expenditure
• Storage has a consistently high value across a wide range of scenarios that include interconnection and flexible generation
• Bulk storage should predominantly be located in Scotland to integrate wind and reduce transmission costs, while distributed storage is best placed in England and Wales to reduce peak loads and support distribution network management
• Higher storage efficiencies only add moderate value of storage
• Operation patterns and duty cycles imposed on the energy storage technology are found to vary considerably, and it is likely that a portfolio of different energy storage technologies will be required
• There remain a number of important unknowns with respect to the technologies involved in grid-scale energy  storage

Centre for Low Carbon Futures (CLCF)

July 2012: The CLCF announced the establishment of a new collaboration with the University of Birmingham and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, developing Energy Storage Technologies. Principal academics include Professors Xiao-Ping Zhang and Richard A Williams from the University of Birmingham, Dr Yulong Ding from the Chinese Academy of Science and the University of Leeds, Professor Peter Taylor from the University of Leeds and Professor Peter Hall from the University of Sheffield.

March 2012: CLCF published a report ‘Pathways for Energy Storage in the UK’. The report shows that storage of electricity and heat could be the hidden gem for our future management of energy as we increase renewable power generation and manage peak demand. The authors call for a more joined up plan for energy storage which is consistent with developments in the wider energy system.

Further details from http://www.lowcarbonfutures.org/.

Energy Research Partnership

November 2012: ERP in partnership with the Energy Storage Research Network brought together the major funders of energy storage innovation, from public and private sector, to exchange information and allow improved coordination of programmes. There was a discussion of how best to feed learning from the innovation community into policy making and regulation.

Specific actions arising were to:

• Develop a more integrated energy storage technology community through the Energy Storage Research Network, Electricity Storage Network* and Energy Research Partnership fora; building on the KTN’s web-­‐based platform for the ESRN.
• Explore options for input of research and analysis on energy storage technologies to policy and regulatory decision-makers via the DECC/Ofgem Smart Grid Forum.

A note of the meeting is available here.

Presentations are available from:

• Nigel Brandon (Imperial College) – Challenges and opportunities for grid-scale storage
• Peter Taylor (University of Leeds) – Implications for policy
• Sally Fenton (DECC) – DECC Energy Storage Innovation Competitions
• Jonathan Radcliffe (ERP) – Overview of innovation support

ERP has also looked more widely at flexibility options for the energy system, publishing a report in May 2012. See http://www.energyresearchpartnership.org.uk/tiki-index.php?page=Flexibility+Options.

*The Electricity Storage Network is a body with fifteen industrial members and a number of academic members with a mission: To demonstrate the social, technical and economic benefits of electrical energy storage; To inform and educate; and To present electrical energy storage as an integral part of the power network. See http://www.electricitystorage.co.uk/index.html.

ETI

June 2012: ETI made a £14m investment with Isentropic to develop and demonstrate a cost-effective 1.5MW/6MWh energy storage device that will operate on a UK primary substation owned by Western Power Distribution (WPD) in the Midlands. See http://www.eti.co.uk/news/article/eti_invest_14m_in_energy_storage_breakthrough_with_isentropic.

A number of other studies/requests for proposals have been made by ETI:

• August 2010: Request for Proposals – A Techno- Economic Evaluation of Transportable Energy Storage. “The study will provide information to the ETI as to the relative merits of transportable energy storage and the potential to move forward to a demonstration project.” See http://www.eti.co.uk/news/article/a_techno_economic_evaluation_of_transportable_energy_storage_rfp_now_closed
• November 2010, ‘Feasibility Study of Geological Heat Storage in the UK’ announced. “The ETI project will be led by consultants Buro Happold with input from Cambridge University, the British Geological Survey and IF Technology Group. It will investigate the cost effectiveness and practicalities of storing large quantities of heat for long periods to meet a significant proportion of the UK’s winter demand, evaluate the practical limits for this type of storage and where in the country it could be most effectively used.” The project was completed in Autumn 2011.

See http://www.eti.co.uk/technology_programmes/energy_storage_and_distribution.

European Energy Research Alliance (EERA)

November 2011: A Joint Programme on Energy Storage was launched, covering:

• Electrochemical Storage (Lithium Batteries, Super Capacitors); coordinator: M. Conte (ENEA, Italy)
• Chemical Storage (Hydrogen, Methanol, Ammonia); coordinator: C. Bourasseau (CEA, France)
• Thermal Storage (Advanced Fluid, Phase Change Materials, Thermochemical Heat Storage); coordinator: R. Tamme (DLR, Germany)
• Mechanical Storage (Hydro, Fly Wheels, Compressed Air); coordinator: A. Harby (Sintef, Norway)
• Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage; coordinator: M. Noe (KIT, Germany)
• Techno-Economics; coordinator: P. Hall (Univ. of Strathclyde)

Ofgem

Ofgem’s Low Carbon Networks Fund allows up to £500m support to projects sponsored by the distribution network operators (DNOs) to try out new technology, operating and commercial arrangements. There are two tiers of funding which are available under the LCN Fund. The First Tier is designed to enable DNOs to recover a proportion of expenditure incurred on small scale projects. Under the Second Tier of the LCN Fund, Ofgem facilitates an annual competition for an allocation of up to £64million to help fund a small number of flagship projects. See http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Networks/ElecDist/lcnf/Pages/lcnf.aspx

Tier 2 projects

November 2012: Five ‘Tier 2’ projects succeeded in the 2012 competition, with total funding of £45.5m, one of which had a significant energy storage component:

• The Eastern Power Networks ‘Smarter Network Storage’ project focuses on battery storage, receiving £13.2m to demonstrate
  the multi-purpose application of 6MW/10MWh of energy storage at Leighton Buzzard primary substation, deferring £8.6m of traditional reinforcement. Details of the project at http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Networks/ElecDist/lcnf/stlcnp/year3/smarter-network-storage/Pages/index.aspx.

Details of all 2012 projects at http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Networks/ElecDist/lcnf/stlcnp/year3/Pages/index.aspx.

December 2011: Six second-tier projects were successful in the second round of Low Carbon Networks Fund. Two of these projects had an explicit energy storage component:

• BRISTOL (submitted by Western Power Distribution): will trial the use of in-home battery storage with PV
• New Thames Valley Vision (submitted by Southern Electric Power Distribution): will assess the effectiveness of various interventions to actively manage the network including street level energy storage, and trial thermal storage for I&C customers.

Details of all 2011 winning projects at http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Networks/ElecDist/lcnf/stlcnp/year2/Pages/index.aspx.

Tier 1 projects

Other projects with energy storage components are supported by Ofgem as first-tier projects:

• SSE has three relevant projects (see http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Networks/ElecDist/lcnf/ftp/sse/Pages/index.aspx):
  • The NINES project being developed by SSE includes installation of a 1MW/6MWh NAS battery (part-funded by DECC) and distributed ‘smart’ thermal storage.
  • SEPD is proposing to install 3 single-phase 25kW/25kWh Li-ion batteries on the LV network in Slough to inform and de-risk deployment of energy storage technologies under the second-tier project, above. The trial will run January 2012 – March 2013.
  • The Orkney Energy Storage Park project from  is aimed principally at demonstrating that it is possible for a DNO to create the commercial incentives and infrastructure to encourage third party energy storage providers to locate their storage in areas where it can be used to alleviate network constraints.
• UK Power Networks has installed a 200kW/200kWh Li-ion battery on 11kV network with distributed generation attached, to validate the performance of the storage device. See http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Networks/ElecDist/lcnf/ftp/ukpn/Pages/index.aspx. Early findings have been published in September 2011 at http://dro.dur.ac.uk/8681/1/8681.pdf&ei=yHqzT5GRL8bo8QO1u52pCQ&usg=AFQjCNGQfqsz00VryJ0hu86nDlcNF_pt1Q.

Research Councils

Energy Storage Research Network

October 2012: EPSRC is funding an Energy Storage Research Network, led by Nigel Brandon at Imperial College, from October 2012.

The network will organise a series of meetings and workshops over a three year period to help develop a more integrated energy storage research community in the UK, and to raise the profile of UK energy storage research both nationally and internationally. The network will consider all the potential storage approaches, with applications focussing in particular on those important to the provision of future low carbon energy systems, so electric and hybrid vehicles and grid scale applications.

Details at http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/NGBOViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP/J021695/1.

UK – India Call

August 2012: On 22 August 2012, India’s Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi, in collaboration with the Research Councils UK Energy Programme, jointly invited proposals for consortia research projects focussing on Smart Energy Grids and Energy Storage. The closing date for proposals is 15 November 2012. EPSRC and DST expect to commit up to £5M each on research programmes of up to three years in length.

See http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/open/Pages/SmartEnergyGrids.aspx.

Grand Challenge

April 2012: the Research Councils Energy Programme announced funding for two Grand Challenge projects in energy storage:

• Energy Storage for Low Carbon Grids: PI Professor Goran Strbac, Imperial College; value £5.6m, starting July 2012; see http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/NGBOViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP/K002252/1
• Integrated, Market-fit and Affordable Grid-scale Energy Storage (IMAGES): PI Professor Jihong Wang, Warwick; value £3m, starting June 2012; see http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/NGBOViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP/K002228/1

Other grants

All EPSRC grants with an energy storage component can be viewed on the web at http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/NGBOChooseTTS.aspx?Mode=ResearchArea&ItemDesc=Energy+storage. As of May 2012, 24 grants were being funded, with total value £28.6m.

Royal Academy of Engineering

The Academy hosted a workshop with the Chinese Acdemy of Sciences (CAS) on the future of energy storage technologies and policy in London in January 2011 (see http://www.raeng.org.uk/news/releases/shownews.htm?NewsID=626), with a return workshop in Beijing held in May 2011 (see http://www.raeng.org.uk/news/releases/shownews.htm?NewsID=659).

A report of the workshops was published in August 2012, available from http://www.raeng.org.uk/international/.

The key recommendations were: (1) Develop more robust systems analysis and modeling; ccelerate the deployment of energy storage technology; (2) Identify funding pathways for EST systems and related infrastructure; (3) Actively encourage collaborative research; (4) Recognise and promote innovation in EST through prizes, awards and scholarships; (5) Establish a senior UK-China steering group to develop further collaborative activity.

UKERC

In May 2011, a UKERC workshop ‘The future of energy storage: stakeholder perspectives and policy implications’ (referred to on page 8 of the ERP report) was held and a report published, available from http://www.ukerc.ac.uk/support/tiki-index.php?page_ref_id=2889. The Executive Summary findings include:

“The lack of a clear numerical understanding of the value proposition of storage could lead to a missed opportunity for the UK, both in terms of the transition towards an efficient low carbon energy system, and a possible export market for storage technologies worldwide.

Three main points in need of attention have been identified by the workshop:

• Modelling work to clarify the value proposition of storage
• Deployment support to aid learning around technology development and system integration
• A regulatory system to enable market uptake”

In June 2011, the UKERC Research Fund made an award to Professor Philip Eames, Loughborough University, to undertake a project ‘The Future Role of Thermal Energy Storage in the UK Energy System: Assessment of Technical Feasibility and Factors Influencing Adoption’. See http://www.ukerc.ac.uk/support/tiki-index.php?page=RF3SmallThermalStorage

In July 2011, UKERC’s Research Atlas was updated to include a new ‘Energy storage’ landscape by Alan Ruddell, covering electrical energy storage, available from http://ukerc.rl.ac.uk/Landscapes/EnergyStorage.pdf. The report states:

“The UK is well established as a centre for battery development, with the main focus on lithium batteries, an important technology for mobile and stationary applications alike. The main challenge is to improve storage performance particularly in terms of energy density, and lifetime during charge and discharge cycling, through research into new electrode materials and manufacturing methods.”