3 reasons why storage will replace peaker plants
November 21, 2014
Peaking electric generation plants also known as peakers serve to provide added capacity that cannot be met by base load power plants to meet peak day power demands. The peaking plants only operate when the capacity of a nearby power grid risks being stretched too thin, so energy generated by these plants comes at a premium price that is passed on to consumers. Thankfully, there are significantly more efficient and cost effective methods for stabilizing the power grid, such as deploying energy storage technology. Explore the newest trends in energy storage technology to see why peaker plants may be headed toward the door.
Wider range of cheaper storage over the horizon
While energy storage offers a cleaner, greener way to meet power demand than peakers, the cost-effective advantages of gas-fueled plants have helped the fossil-fueled approach to stay in vogue. The longstanding cost advantages of peaker plants are slowly fading away, according to Utility Dive. In fact, the standard cost of certain types of energy storage such as batteries is expected to be competitive with high-performance combustion turbines by the end of 2018. By this period, the market is likely to experience a huge shift, caused by the disruption of the country's peak plant infrastructure with convenient energy storage solutions. Batteries are heading down to $244/kWh by 2018 and thermal storage is already competitive with peaking plants in most regions, between $150kWh and $225kWh.
Rapid response key to efficiency
As the price difference between energy storage and peaker plants has eroded, the advantages of energy storage as a supplement for renewables has begun to stand out. One of the key advantages energy storage offers the power grid is response time. Energy storage technologies can deliver response times more rapid than those of peak plants. Peaking facilities require up to 20 minutes to deliver power when demand exceeds the capacity of base load plants, according to Clean Technica. In areas of the country where intermittency problems are rampant, rapid energy distribution via storage will go a long way toward to stabilizing a shaky grid.
Arizona moves to phase out peakers
The need for greater grid capacity is expected to increase by 40 megawatts in less than two decades from now. That's the very reason that Arizona has turned to energy storage to meet its long-term grid stability goals, said the Energy Collective. Arizona Public Service has recently agreed to a settlement with the Residential Utility Consumer Office that prioritizes energy storage as an alternative to developing fossil fuel plants like peakers. In fact, the proposal noted that the state would be ready to hear proposals for phasing out peak plants in favor of energy storage as early as 2018.
Arizona is merely the latest state in the union to make a hard push for additional energy storage investments. New York, for instance, has pushed for greater statewide adoption of energy storage all year. One of the state's utilities even committed to reducing its peak load by 100 MW via distributed energy storage earlier this year. These states will help displace peakers. Likewise, a wider range of cost-effective deployment of energy storage will help advance full-scale adoption energy storage on the grid and consumer side.
