Emission II Study of Advanced Storage used for Frequency Regulation

2017-08-01

In 2007, KEMA, Inc. (KEMA) was commissioned by the Depart of Energy (DOE), through Beacon Power Corporation and Sandia National Labs to investigate potential emission savings created by having advanced, fast response storage provide regulation vs. traditional power plants. 

The project only provided a high level “snapshot” of the potential advantages that could be created by such a substitution. This snapshot essentially comprised of a comparison of a flywheel device vs. (1) A coal-fired plant and (2) a natural gas combustion turbine. Analysis focused on Baseloaded Generation (400 MW) and Peaker Plants (60 MW). In addition, a comparison was also made to a pumped hydro facility. 

The results of this study showed significant advantages to using the fast response storage device in savings for CO2 and advantages with NOx as well. The main driver to this was the fact that the storage device is charged by a “portfolio of generation” in the territory it was operating in and also by the perceived inefficiencies of operating power plants in regulation mode. These inefficiencies were assumed to be caused by “ramping” a generator in response to the regulation requirements.