Assessment of utility side cost savings from battery energy storage

A method of determining the dynamic operating cost benefits of energy storage systems for utility applications is presented. The production costing program DYNASTORE is used to analyze economic benefits for "utility B," an isolated island utility, using heuristic unit commitment algorithms. The unit commitment is done using chronologic load data and a detailed model of the utility characteristics. Several unit commitment scenarios are run for utility B, and the results are presented. Comparisons between various battery energy storage system (BESS) applications, as well as cases with and without battery storage, are shown. Results show that for utility B, a BESS of 300 MW size used for spinning reserve provides the greatest economic benefit.