UK Research Needs in Grid Scale Technologies

N P Brandon1, J S Edge1, M Aunedi1, E Barbour4, P Bruce2, D Carter3, B Chakrabarti1, T Esterle2, J Somerville2, Y Ding4, C Fu2, P Grant2, P Hall6, C.Huang2, G Leng4, Y Li4, V Martins6, M E Navarro4, J Posada6, A Rennie6, D J Rogers3, G Strbac1, S Villar6, V Yufit1, J Wang5, D A Worsley7

1Imperial College London, 2University of Oxford, 3Cardiff University, 4University of Birmingham, 5University of Warwick, 6University of Sheffield, 7Swansea University.

UK Research Needs in Grid Scale Energy Storage Technologies i Preface

This white paper provides a concise guide to key technology options for grid scale energy storage, with the aim of informing stakeholders in industry, government and the funding agencies of the opportunities and need for underpinning research into both current and emerging technologies for grid scale storage applications.

The paper has been produced in recognition of both the need for cost effective, durable and safe grid scale energy storage solutions (across a wide range of power and energy levels) to support future low carbon energy systems and the need for underpinning research into new ideas and concepts to support the development and subsequent deployment of both emerging and new energy storage options.

The paper is based on the personal views of contributors from a number of EPSRC funded programmes: “Energy Storage for Low Carbon Grids“ (EP/K002252/1), “Integrated, Market-fit and Affordable Grid-scale Energy Storage (IMAGES)“ (EP/K002228/1), the Energy SuperStore SUPERGEN Hub (EP/L019469/1) and the Energy Storage Research Network (EP/J021695/1).

The Energy SUPERSTORE is the UK’s Energy Storage Supergen Hub. This Hub aims to accelerate innovation by developing the UK Energy Storage community, bringing together researchers from the academic, industrial and policy domains. The Hub is supported by the EPSRC through grant EP/L019469/1.

The Energy Storage Research Network (ESRN) is the networking and events arm of the Energy SUPERSTORE, promoting collaboration in energy storage and its application to future low carbon energy systems. This network is supported by funding from the EPSRC through grant EP/J021695/1.

The EPSRC leads the Research Councils UK (RCUK) Energy Programme, which aims to position the UK to meet its energy and environmental targets and policy goals through world-class research and training. The Energy Programme is investing more than £625 million in research and skills to pioneer a low carbon future. This builds on an investment of £839 million over the past eight years.

ii UK Research Needs in Grid Scale Energy Storage Technologies Executive summary

In response to the climate change challenge, the UK’s electricity system is expected to integrate significant amounts of intermittent renewable generation, potentially in combination with less flexible nuclear and CCS plants, while segments of the transport and heat sectors are expected to be increasingly electrified. Integration of low capacity value intermittent generation accompanied with possibly very significant increases in peak demand driven by transport and heating electrification, may lead to significant degradation in the utilisation of generation infrastructure and electricity network assets, leading to considerable increases in system integration costs.

In this context, grid scale energy storage can deliver multiple benefits to the system by: (i) reducing generation operating cost by enhancing the ability of the system to absorb renewable generation, reducing the curtailment of renewables; (ii) reducing generation investment costs by contributing to the delivery of adequacy / security of supply and (iii) offsetting the need for interconnection and transmission investment. Furthermore, smaller scale distributed storage can, in addition: (iv) reduce the need for distribution network reinforcement driven by the electrification of transpor