IEEE Electrification Magazine - September 2015 - 62

Viewpoint

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storage facilities. Tapping into the
natural gas network has the promise
of creating long-term seasonal storage in some locations.
Virtual storage is the use of intelligently controlled building loads (e.g.,
lighting, motors, and heating and
cooling systems) to dynamically
reshape load profiles and respond to
grid signals in a manor that mimics
the characteristics of energy storage.
Virtual storage can be extremely fast
in the case of thermostatically controlled devices (e.g., water heaters and
refrigerators) responding to frequency
regulation signals, or they can be
much slower and be aggregated and
bid into market products that can last
from 3 to 24 h. The use of large
amounts of highly responsive loads
would significantly change how the
power system is planned and operated but could prove a low-cost method
of increasing power system flexibility.

Summary
As we move to a future clean energy
system that integrated increasing
amounts of variable generation,
energy storage in one form or another will be an essential part of managing system operations. Future cost
reductions in classical energy-storage
technologies such as batteries will
help improve overall grid operations,
but we should also look at nontraditional storage such as ESI and virtual
storage to meet the needs of the
future grid.

For Further Reading
Grid Energy Storage, U.S. Department of
Energy, Dec. 2013.
T. Markel, A. Meintz, K. Hardy,
B. Chen, T. Bohn, J. Smart, D. Scoffield,
R. Hovsapian, S. Saxena, J. MacDonald,
S. Kiliccote, K. Hahl, and R. Pratt, "Multi-lab
EV smart grid integration requirements
study," NREL/TP-5400-63963, May 2015.

TALK

The IEEE Power & Energy Society's Practical
Education Courses for Industry Professionals.

M. O'Malley and B. Kroposki, "Energy
comes together: The integration of all
systems," IEEE Power Energy Mag., vol. 11,
no. 5, pp. 18-23, Sept.-Oct. 2013.
"Energy Concept 2050 for Germany
with a European and global perspective," Fraunhofer IBP, Fraunhofer ISE,
Fraunhofer IWES, ISFH, IZES gGmbH,
ZAE Bayern, and ZSW, June 2010.
P. Meibom, K. B. Hilger, H. Madsen, and
D. Vinther, "Energy comes together in Denmark: The key to a future fossil-free Danish power system," IEEE Power Energy Mag.,
vol. 11, no. 5, pp. 46-55, Sept.-Oct. 2013.
G. Kats and A. Seal, "Buildings as batteries: The rise of 'virtual storage'," Electr.
J., vol. 25, no. 10, pp. 59-70, Dec. 2012.

Biography
Benjamin Kroposki (Benjamin.
Kroposki@nrel.gov) is the director of
the Power Systems Engineering Center at the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory in Golden, Colorado.

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Electrification Magazine - September 2015