Our electric grid is the “beating heart” of our modern economy and society, so it is vital to ensure it operates smoothly. There are a lot of challenges confronting electric grid reliability today, including unprecedented extreme weather events and rising failures in thermal generation plants. At the same time, our electric load is rising dramatically due to new datacenter and manufacturing demands, requiring new resource additions and operational approaches to ensure that this new demand can be met reliably.
As energy demand increases across the United States, some grid planners are making the case that new fossil fuel resources such as gas power plants are essential to meeting these emerging reliability needs. In many of these cases, other grid resources that could also support reliability (such as battery energy storage systems) aren’t being considered, even though they can do so just as effectively, and in some cases, at a lower cost. Already, there are real-world examples of the improved economics of battery storage outshining and replacing the buildout of new gas-fired power plants. Nevertheless, utilities and regional transmission organizations are proposing new natural gas development, and keeping uneconomic coal plants online, in the name of reliability — placing corporate, state, and national climate goals at risk.
There are examples of battery energy storage providing essential reliability services in successful demonstrations around the world. Batteries are one of the most flexible grid resources because they can be charged and discharged to support real-time grid needs due to their extremely fast response times that are even faster than that of thermal plants. In addition, grid-scale batteries can have many software- and hardware-based features that provide reliability “services” to the grid such as black start, peaking capacity, operating reserves, and more. Just as our hearts support a healthy body, batteries can help support a “healthy” grid; here are just three ways they do this.