Comments on: How California’s Landmark Energy Storage Bill Works

By: Spray

Spray — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 14:17:24 +0000

I believe that this statement is misleading:
“But because sites to build new pumped hydro are hard to find geographically and hard to build politically, the state will need to find other alternatives, Cazelet said”

Pumped storage hydro sites are abundant in many areas throughout the US. There are over 40 pumped storage projects with preliminary permits with FERC and there are 3 in California in the later stages of licensing review with up to 2 GW of capacity.

The main requirement for a pumped storage site is a change in elevation. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways including using underground resources for a lower reservoir.

As with any large project there is significant due diligence to be performed to ensure that the project will not be harmful to the chosen site, but I would not consider that a political road block.

Like other energy storage technologies pumped storage hydro suffers from lack of market pull. Unlike other energy storage technologies, pumped storage hydro is a mature technology that is internationally accepted. Pumped storage hydro is the only mature large scale energy storage technology available in the world today.

By: Xtreme Power Raising Funds for Extreme Plans

Xtreme Power Raising Funds for Extreme Plans — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 20:05:56 +0000

[...] funding energy storage with $120 million of its $4 billion in smart grid stimulus grants, and a California energy storage bill would require utilities to store about 5 percent of their peak generation capacity by [...]

By: Jerry Brown Kicks Off Governor Battle at Solar Startup Solaria

Jerry Brown Kicks Off Governor Battle at Solar Startup Solaria — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 16:00:45 +0000

[...] Triple Pundit reported that Brown used the stage at Solaria to repeat his support of AB32 and to praise the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority, which supports factories for green vehicle tech. Brown has a long history of supporting clean power and environmental regulations, including his work as Attorney General to bring the state’s stringent clean air standards to a national stage and his co-sponsorship of a bill that would require the state’s big utilities to install energy storage systems. [...]

By: Xtreme Power: A Super-Battery For Hawaiian Wind Farms

Xtreme Power: A Super-Battery For Hawaiian Wind Farms — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:01:35 +0000

[...] DOE has targeted energy storage for $120 million of its $4 billion in smart grid stimulus grants. A California energy storage bill that would require utilities to store about 5 percent of their peak generation capacity by 2020 [...]

By: Jasmine

Jasmine — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:07:03 +0000

Stored energy backs up renewables but also reduces the peak load so that we can avoid the more costly option of adding new power plants or the more polluting option of using peaker plants. Fact is that we need to really reduce peak demand and storage is best suited for that. Since peak load can be calculated a mandatory level can likewise be mandated.

There are many kinds of storage and lumping them all together doesn't tell the true story. Thermal energy storage has been used effectively for decades and is manufactured here in the United States. Its not risky. Many of America's top banks, corporations, schools, etc use thermal storage now. But is everyone using storage? No. There are some financial incentives for customers to use storage (Most utilities have a 50% sale on off-peak power every night) but the largest benefit is to society not to individuals which is what makes this Bill so critical. The more storage, the more peak goes down for everyone, the less peaker plants are used and replaced by storage, the better air-quality for everyone and less money spent on new plants means more money in everyone's pocket. We can use what we have and affordably phase in renewables or not.

Market incentives can work but they are not the only way. Markets as we saw with the housing boom do not always work in favor of consumers. Market incentives have their risks as well. Incentivizing projects and thermal energy storage is proven to work and can be instrumental in providing a solution to energy shortages, pollution and the phasing in of green power.

By: Rover1401

Rover1401 — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:58:50 +0000

Renewables are NEGATIVE load. Understanding this simple equation will highlight that CA & the author of this bill have no grasp on economics, the power industry, or the integration of renewables. Depicting energy storage as the panacea to renewable integration and forcing utilities to have a % of storage per load is pure lunacy. Let me break it down into 3 main points.

1) Renewables are used to replace load. The remaining generators & storage will be used to fill in the gaps when renewables are not available or the penetration level causes base-load plants to reg down. However, market mechanisms should be used to signal that storage (or demand response) are needed. Storage is different than solar or wind and a mandatory level of energy storage is ludicrous.

2) Energy Storage is a new, unproven technology. As you mentioned, pumped hydro, CAES, and a number of technologies have been running for decades but these latest technologies are new & unproven. There is absolutely NO WAY that these should be a rate based asset that gets pushed onto the end customer. Anyone remember what happened w/ the Chino, Puerto Rico, or Vernon installations? If storage is to be owned in the power industry, it needs to be in the hands of private companies who succeed or fail on the success of these technologies. Remember, private capital should be used for risky ventures. I know this isn't very American anymore, but this drives innovation and places risk with the correct people.

3) Storage can provide a number of services ALL of which are already being provided in some form or another. (though the response time of storage is faster & more accurate). A new technology does not change the fact that regulation, spinning reserves, voltage support, arbitrage etc. should be market based activities and not utility rate-based activities.

So the real question is, how do we increase renewable penetration levels? Energy storage will definitely help and should be encouraged but not by incentivizing projects that are risky to the rate payer and providing services that should be market based.

Instead, create the market incentives to bring storage into the balancing areas. A refundable tax credit on CapEx, a capacity market for storage, or a market based service that pays for performance(speed of response) would all encourage energy storage to enter the market, but at a lower cost and less risk to the tax-payer.

-B.