Sandia National Laboratories’ Electric Power Systems Research Dept. and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Advanced Power and Energy Systems Group have released a jointly authored report that examines how grid-level electricity storage might benefit the operations of NV Energy in 2020, and assesses whether those benefits justify the cost of the storage system.
Titled “NV Energy Electricity Storage Valuation” (PDF, 933 kb), the report finds that grid-level storage adds the most value to the 2020 NV Energy system by providing regulating reserve, and that a grid-level storage facility in the 2020 NV Energy system may have a positive net present value at today’s storage system prices, provided that regulating reserve from a fast ramp rate resource is valued more than that from a slow ramp rate resource.