Economic modelling of energy storage plants in Hungary

In the last decade, Europe´s energy policy and market have completely changed. The economic crisis and global warming have rewritten the rules so far. The need for cheap and environmentally friendly energy is growing nowadays as well. The gas prices have increased to a level, where with the current electricity prices the operation of gas fired power plants is not profitable anymore. That´s why Hungarian gas fired plants, like Gönyü or Tisza 2 had to shut down temporary or permanently. These effects and the European Union´s renewable target led Hungary to tend to the direction of a nuclear-green energy mix. This means that with Paks and Paks 2 we will have a big nuclear base load, and a biomass, wind and solar based renewable producing system. The problem of this system is the coproduction of the two nuclear power plants, since there will be a huge uncontrollable capacity, and on top of that, the intermittent nature of solar and wind power plants will causea lot of problems. The Hungarian electricity system is not prepared for these challenges. That´s why Hungary will need regulating capacity, which can help to compensate the fluctuation of supply and demand. An energy storage power plant can provide the utility needed for the system. All of the neighboring countries have some kind of storage facility, and Hungary will need some as well. This paper´s aim is to introduce storage technologies from a technological and economical aspect, and to set up a model, which can distinguish and compare technologies, and can decide which would be the best economically feasible technology for the future Hungarian electricity system.