Making the economic case for bulk energy storage in electric power systems

Bulk energy storage has often been suggested for large scale electric power systems in order to levelize load; store energy when it is inexpensive and discharge energy when it is expensive; potentially defer transmission and generation expansion; and provide for generation reserve margins. As renewable energy resource penetration increases, the uncertainty and variability of wind and solar may be alleviated by bulk energy storage technologies. This research addresses the economic case for bulk energy storage optimized for multiple objectives including decreasing generation costs and peak shaving. The test bed used is the Arizona electric transmission system.