Energy Storage and The Grid

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Course objectives

In developing future energy strategies, particularly where renewable sources such as solar and wind will hold significant shares, the ability to store energy at large scales will become increasingly important. This course is designed, like all Green Power Academy training, to be accessible to commercially-minded business people. It provides an excellent introduction to the reasons why energy storage matters, the financial balances which will determine its market growth and the technological solutions through which it can be achieved.

Level & Style

All Green Power Academy courses run in an informal and extremely interactive manner, encouraging discussion and questions, to ensure that participants get the most value from the day.

This course is designed for those with commercial, financial and business interests in the energy industry, and assumes no prior knowledge. All aspects, both economic and technological, are presented in clear language, making the course of value to a range of job functions including senior managers from power utilities; power producers; grid operators; policymakers; investors; technology vendors and other stakeholders.

Approximate Timings

Course begins: 09:00 - Course ends: 17:00
(includes lunch plus morning and afternoon refreshment breaks)

About your trainer

Dr John Massey is Green Power Academy's founder, Training Director, in-house renewables expert and lead trainer. He combines a strong academic science background with over fifteen years commercial experience of industry research, analysis and training across a variety of "new technology" industries, including conventional and renewable energy, telecoms and IT. Dr Massey's particular expertise lies in his combination of both technological and commercial expertise, allowing him to both demystify new technologies and present their economic and business case contexts.

He delivers training globally, to senior executives from a wide range of organisations from project development to finance and has also developed educational material for both live and distance learning courses. He holds a 1st Class Honours degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, a PhD in Earth Sciences and a Diploma in Economics, Innovation and Sustainability.

Agenda Details

The Business Case for Large-scale Energy Storage:

• Grid integration challenges for variable and intermittent renewables such as solar and wind
• Supply and demand with non-"dispatchable" power sources
• Grid balancing and demand management
• Transmission capacity, planning and "smart" grids
• Future transport markets and energy storage

Technologies for Energy Storage:

• Understanding current and future storage options, including:
   - Pumped storage
   - Thermal storage
   - CAES (compressed air energy storage)
   - Flywheels
   - Capacitors
   - A multitude of battery types, including:
      Flow, NaS, Metal-air, Li-ion, Lead-Acid, fuel cells etc.
• Explaining the differing characteristics and appropriate applications of the various storage technologies
• Differentiating Energy vs. Power capacity in developing and deploying storage solutions

The Economics of Renewable Power with Energy Storage

• The costs of the various storage technologies:
   - Comparative capital, operating and marginal costs
• Storage costs and their impact (positive and/or negative) on electricity costs:
   - The impact of storage on unit costs in electricity markets
   - Market structure and energy policy aspects in influencing the economics of energy storage
      Including trading areas and renewable subsidies such as feed-in tariffs
•  - The impact of storage on full power project lifecycle costs:
      Levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) and storage sensitivity analysis