Utility energy storage applications studies

The values of benefits and costs have been estimated for applying energy storage to three situations on the Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation system, One situation is a valuable industrial customer requiring high quality, reliable power. The second situation is the need for reliable power at the end of a radial distribution feeder. The third situation is a case of thermal overload on a transmission line to a growing load in an environmentally sensitive location. The first case requires a small storage system (30 MJ); the second and third require relatively large systems (250 and 550 MWh, respectively). A variety of energy storage technologies was considered for each case (superconducting magnet energy storage (SMES), batteries, flywheels, capacitors, compressed air energy storage (CAES), compressed air in vessels, pumped hydro). This paper presents the benefit/cost results for the technologies considered for each case.