Full Title: Electricity Storage: Applications, Issues, and Technologies
Author(s): Richard J. Campbell
Publisher(s): Congressional Research Service
Publication Date: October 9, 2019
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Description (excerpt):
Electricity, as it is currently produced, is largely a commodity resource that is interchangeable with electricity from any other source. Since opportunities for the large-scale storage of electricity are few, it is essentially a just-in-time resource, produced as needed to meet the demand of electricity-consuming customers. Climate change mitigation has increased the focus on the use of renewable electricity. While energy storage is seen as an enabling technology with the potential to reduce the intermittency and variability of wind and solar resources, energy storage resources would have to be charged by low- or zero-emission or renewable sources of electricity to ensure a reduction of greenhouse gases.
Energy storage is being increasingly investigated for its potential to provide significant benefits to the interstate transmission grid, and perhaps to local distribution systems and thus to retail electric customers. The ability to store energy presents an opportunity to add flexibility in how electricity is produced and used, and provides an alternative to address peak loads on the system using renewable electricity stored at low-demand times. In addition to providing power on demand, energy storage technologies have the potential to provide ancillary services to the electricity grid to ensure the reliability and stability of the power system, and better match generation to demand for electricity.