Full Title: Integrated Energy Storage in the United States
Author(s): Ben Bovarnick
Publisher(s): Center for American Progress (CAP)
Publication Date: December 1, 2015
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Whether powering cellphones or keeping laptops charged, energy storage has become a daily function in our lives. Now, these storage systems are poised to help supply power to homes, cars, and power plants. The rapidly falling cost of energy storage technologies in recent years is encouraging wider adoption by utilities, commercial business, and homeowners, and it is important that policymakers proactively drive greater integration of energy storage within the broader electricity grid.
The term “energy storage” describes a broad slate of technologies that primarily store electrical energy for later use, allowing utilities and electricity consumers to access it when most needed. Although cellphone and laptop batteries store and discharge energy in the same way as many commercial and utility-scale energy systems, these large systems can hold thousands to millions of times more energy in reserve. These storage systems are used to improve the efficiency of electric utility operations, support electric grid stability, and save extra electricity to meet peak demand.