Electric Energy Storage Systems

Energy storage systems include various means of storing and recovering energy for later use (Table 1). Electric energy storage systems accept and return the stored energy as electric power, although they may store the energy in another form. Non-electric energy storage units store the energy in some other form. Despite this, they may be of interest to electric utilities and power engineers since they can materially affect the shape of daily demand curves.

Among other benefits and features, energy storage of either type permits peak shaving in electric usage: power can be consumed at one time (off peak or slowly over a long period to time) and the energy actually used at another time and perhaps at a much higher rate than when put into storage. The most widely used energy storage system is one most people to not think of as energy storage: the storage water heater, which retains 30 to 100 gallons of hot water that it heats gradually over an hour or more but in a way that it can deliver it for us in only a few minutes if asked. This and other non-electric energy storage devices are discussed elsewhere (see References at end of this page). The rest of this discussion will focus on electric energy storage.

Topics Include:

• Basics of Electric Energy Storage Systems
• Benefits and Applications of Energy Storage
• Capabilities Provided by Electric Energy Storage
• Complicated Studies
• Energy Storage at Quanta Technology
• Fixing the Apples-to-oranges Conundrum
• Making Renewable Energy Dispatchable
• Parts of an Energy Storage System