POWER March 2012 - 8

Large China Energy Storage Project
Begins Operation
Chinese state entity State Grid Corp. of China (SGCC) and battery
maker BYD in January said they had finished construction on what
they call " the world's largest battery energy storage station " -a
project in Zhangbei, Hebei Province that combines 100 MW of
wind and 40 MW of solar capacity, a smart power transmission
system, and 36 MWh of energy storage in arrays " larger than a
football field. " The $500 million project uses BYD's lithium iron
phosphate battery technology, which SGCC said it chose for a
service life of over 20 years (Figure 1).
SGCC in September had lauded completion of another iron
phosphate battery storage station-the 12-MWh Shenzhen Baoqing
Battery Energy Storage Station in the Longgang District of
Shenzhen City, which is tied to a 110-kV substation supporting
the rapidly growing Biling Industrial Park. That facility, like the
Zhangbei project, is being used for load leveling and daytime
peak shaving.
The two projects may be the largest iron phosphate battery
projects, but they are not accurately called the largest, nor the
most powerful, existing energy storage projects, experts point
out. Comparisons of energy storage projects are unwieldy be1.
A big deal. Chinese state entity State Grid Corp. of China and
battery maker BYD developed a $500 million energy storage facility that
combines 100 MW of wind and 40 MW of solar capacity, a smart power
transmission system, and 36 MWh of energy storage. Courtesy: BYD
cause some developers measure projects in megawatts, as opposed
to megawatt-hours.
Among other large energy storage projects is the Laurel Mountain
energy storage facility in Randolph and Barbour Counties
near Elkins, W.Va., which comprises 98 MW of wind generation
and 32 MW of integrated lithium ion battery storage. AES Wind
Generation and AES Energy Storage began operating this project
in October 2011 and call it " the largest project of its kind. " A
34-MW sodium sulfide battery system was installed at a 51-MW
wind farm in Japan by the Japan Wind Development Co. in 2008.
And Alaska's Golden Valley Electric Association has been using a
nickel cadmium battery storage system since 2003 that has been
designed to deliver 27 MW over 15 minutes (6.75 MWh) to improve
reliability services-but whose maximum test limits show
it can discharge up to 46 MW in 5 minutes.
Several interesting new energy storage projects are slated to come
online in the next five years. Among them is UK company Highview
Power Storage's 350-kW pilot plant near London, which recently
completed tests and was connected to the National Grid (Figure 2).
Called a " Cryo Energy System, " the pilot uses liquefied air or liquefied
nitrogen (air is 78% nitrogen) that can be stored in large volumes at
atmospheric pressure. The company is considering building a 7-MW to
10-MW unit using the technology within two years.
" Liquefied air has a high expansion ratio between its liquid
state (-196C) and, more common, gaseous state; expanding
about 700 times when regasified, " the company says on its
website. " As with a traditional steam engine, a cryogenic engine
relies on phase-change (liquid to gas) and expansion within a
confined space e.g. engine cylinder or turbine. Since liquid air
boils at -196C, ambient temperature will superheat it, creating
regasification and expansion. An engine can therefore use freely
available environmental heat as the heat source. "
Bloomberg New Energy Finance points out in a study of UK en2.
Chilled storage. UK company Highview Power Storage completed
150 hours of operational testing of its " Cryo Energy System, " a
novel technology that relies on phase-change and expansion of liquid
air to run an engine. Courtesy: Highview Power Storage
ergy storage efforts that a niche market for relieving bottlenecks
in the transmission and distribution of power is already viable
and that energy storage will be able to economically meet the
need for fast-response reserves and short-term operating reserves
between 2014 and 2017.
One significant development for energy storage worldwide is
that the price of lithium-ion batteries is poised to fall, the research
group says: " In the long-term, as more and more electric
vehicles are made and sold, the cost of batteries used in these
vehicles will fall, and this technology will be directly transferable
to the grid system as well. Most grid-scale lithium-ion battery
projects today cost more than $1,000/kWh, but with battery
manufacturing capacity likely to outstrip supply in the short
term, Bloomberg New Energy Finance is forecasting significant
price drops in the next 36 months, towards $600/kWh by 2015. "
Meeting LNG Demand with Floating
Liquefaction Facilities
The past two years have seen a dramatic escalation of global natural
gas liquefaction capacity. In 2010 alone, liquefied natural gas (LNG)
trade jumped by a stunning 21%, to around 300 billion cubic meters
(10,594 billion cubic feet, bcf), which amounts to 9% of the total
global demand for gas, according to the International Energy Agency
(IEA). Meanwhile, surplus gas on the market is " eroding fast, " IEA
Senior Gas Analyst Anne-Sophie Corbeau told reporters in an LNG
8
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POWER March 2012

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