Member Brief: Is Battery Storage Cost-Effective for Utilities? (March 2016)

For some electric utilities, battery storage is the energy management tool of the decade.

But for many others, battery storage is summed up in one word: expensive. Comparing hundreds of projects and applications, battery storage appears to be competitive beyond levelized cost comparison for generation, which limits its cost-effective to only frequency regulation in wholesale markets. Through an interview with a battery storage integrator, the brief defines two scenarios for utilities to cost-effectively deploy battery storage. It also explores the grid services capabilities of battery storage and provides examples of utilities with operating projects or programs.