POWER September 2020 - 38

ENERGY STORAGE
Energy Storage: America's New
R&D Priority to Secure the Grid
The U.S. Department of Energy has made the research and development (R&D) of
long-duration energy storage at fossil fuel generating stations a priority to keep reliable
and affordable supplies of electricity flowing to American homes, businesses, and
industries while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Briggs White, PhD
s part of its new Advanced Energy
Storage Program, the Department
of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Fossil
Energy (FE) recently released a funding
opportunity announcement (FOA) for technologies
that are nearly ready for implementation,
as well as innovative concepts
with game-changing potential that can be
integrated with fossil assets. Benefits of
hybridizing energy storage with fossil assets
include improved asset utilization, grid
reliability, and environmental performance.
The National Energy Technology Laboratory
(NETL), which is managing the
program for FE, has requested research
organizations, universities, and industry
to provide proposals for funding the advancement
of integrating energy storage
technologies with a range of fossil asset
types. Per an earlier FE-sponsored request
for information (RFI), it is anticipated that
proposals focusing on chemical, thermal,
mechanical, and flow battery storage
technologies capable of medium- and
long-duration storage are most likely to
be submitted. This initiative supports the
broader DOE-wide Energy Storage Grand
Challenge, which was announced by U.S.
Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette in January
to position the U.S. as a world leader in
energy storage by the end of the decade.
Energy storage is not new. Pumpedstorage
hydropower, for instance, has
been around since the 1920s, and other
technologies that involve capturing energy
produced and storing it for later use
remain part of the equation. Therefore,
the obvious question is: Why has FE established
a new energy storage program?
The issue driving the initiative is the
need to protect the modern grid and ensure
it can supply the electricity America
requires as more variable renewable forms
of energy, such as solar and wind power,
are added. Integrating energy storage
systems with coal- and natural gas-fired
power plants provides an economical and
environmentally responsible solution to
38
A
meet that need and strengthen the grid's
resiliency in the event of natural disasters
or cyberattacks that disrupt service.
Fossil fuel-fired plants are designed
to generate power while operating at
continuous maximum capacity and efficiency.
However, with more renewables
on the grid, these conventional fossil
energy plants are required to operate
at minimum loads for longer periods of
time. Such deviations from maximum efficiency
increase fuel consumption and
emissions. Additionally, reduced downturn
of fossil energy plants causes stress
and wear to steam-raising equipment.
FE maintains that energy storage combined
with fossil energy assets offers a
suite of benefits to the environment, asset
owners, the electricity grid, and consumers.
Here are several examples:
■ Consumers can rest easy. Energy storage
at fossil fuel-fired plants will play a
tremendous role in meeting electricity
demand during peak times, including
those sweltering summer days when
air conditioners run at full blast. In the
evenings, energy storage will help
provide electricity during usage spikes
when households turn on their lights
and families power up an increasing
number of home electronics.
■ Resource planners and power plant
operators will find that hybridizing
energy storage with fossil assets offers
a strategy to support the grid with
firm dispatching capability, improved
asset flexibility, and overall system efficiency.
During off-peak hours, plants
will continue to operate at full load and
redirect steam from the steam cycle
to an on-site storage system. During
peak hours, or when renewables are
offline, the stored energy could be discharged
back to the plant to raise additional
steam for electricity generation.
■ Fossil fuel-powered plants running at
high efficiency produce lower emissions
of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse
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gas. And if such a plant were to add
a carbon capture system to its operations,
the prospect of a zero-level
emissions, fossil fuel-based generating
station could become a reality. The
energy storage capability also supports
renewable capacity expansions
in regions that evolve consistent with
various market and regulator drivers.
Today's fleet of existing coal-fired
plants is operating at approximately 50%
of capacity. These generating stations
and many natural gas-fired combined cycle
(NGCC) plants, single-cycle combustion
turbines, and reciprocating engines
operate in a load-following or peaking
manner. Operating these cycling assets
in a more predictable manner, leveraging
the additional flexibility afforded by
energy storage, offers a large potential
business opportunity through asset life
extension, reduced fuel costs, dispatch
capture, and other benefits. The opportunity
before us is clear. Using energy
storage is a business strategy to operate
these assets with greater efficiency to
generate cleaner electricity that can be
sold when it is needed.
Energy storage systems will permit
utilities that burn coal or natural gas to run
at high efficiency during down times and
save the energy they produce for rainy
or windless days when renewable forms
of energy are unavailable. Clearly, fossil
fuel-based electricity, coupled with on-site
energy storage, can help supply the U.S.
with the reliable, cleaner power it needs to
prosper in an evolving energy landscape.
Sparks of Strong Interest
On April 22, 2020, the 50th anniversary
of Earth Day, more than 300 government
policymakers, utility operators, researchers,
and others took part in a U.S. Energy
Association webinar to hear FE and
NETL officials discuss their plans for the
energy storage program.
Attendees learned that large-scale inPOWER
| September 2020

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POWER September 2020

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