Facility Scale Energy Storage: Applications, Technologies, and Barriers

Abstract

Many large facilities in the U.S. are considering the deployment
of energy storage technologies for electric demand response programs.
Technologies developed for facility- and campus-scale energy storage
show promise for managing short-term electrical demand peaks as well
as longer-period demand response events.
This article’s author has investigated facility and campus-scale
energy storage for efficiency program administrators in the U.S. and
recently completed a storage technology research report for an inter-
national consortium of utilities. This work has identified promising
avenues for distributed storage. Facility-scale storage has three primary
uses: 1) power quality—the monitoring and regulation of voltage fluc -
tuations, frequency disruptions, and harmonic distortions; 2) bridging
power—short-term power supply for critical demands, often used to
cover time periods in which emergency generators are powering up;
and 3) energy management—energy storage on a scale to support a
facility or campus of buildings for extended periods of time. These
systems can be responsive to utility demand programs and time-of-use
rates to reduce electrical peak demand costs.