Blog 2

Smart grid with energy storage

Smart grids with integrated energy storage facilitate energy supply time shift to overcome the intermittent nature of many renewable energy sources. They also provide back up supply in the event of power outage and handle peaks, allowing designers to downscale equipment to lower ratings to cope with regular loads, not peak loads.

PEAK SHAVING

In a distributed grid, energy supply and consumption variations result in many power peaks and troughs. Energy storage smooths the peaks and troughs, so the grid supply can operate consistently at the average power demand, which is usually relatively low. This means the grid can carry much more energy with smaller cables, therefore enabling lower capital investment.

Back-up power

At the same time the energy storage system can also provide back-up power in the event of energy scarcity from the supply, for example due to load shedding or unplanned blackout. During power-down, support from energy storage enables consumers to maintain operation for a period of time.

Time shifting

Time shifting redistributes energy to optimize cost, by storing energy during times when energy costs from the grid are low and supplying energy from the storage medium when energy costs are high. Time shifting is also used to achieve the most efficient use of diesel generators, so they can run at full power and store excess energy to battery.

How energy storage improves power quality

Traditional grid : The consumer load creates peaks on the supply network.
Smart grid: Battery storage removes the power peaks on the supply network, so the consumer load causes virtually no disturbance to the grid. This results in good power quality and ideally enables us to scale down the distribution infrastructure, saving cost.