Quick Take: A decade after its original publication, a coalition of industry organizations has updated its Electricity Storage Handbook. The document was produced in collaboration by Sandia National Laboratory, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA).
Although focused on transmission and distribution applications, the handbook provides useful guidance to investors and venture capitalists as well. If the description below sounds useful, you can download the free storage handbook by clicking this link. – By Jesse Berst
EPRI completes extensive revision with DOE and Sandia National Lab to energy storage handbook
In collaboration with the Department of Energy and Sandia National Laboratory, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has completed an extensive revision and update to the Energy Storage Handbook, which has been published by Sandia National Laboratory. This edition updates the EPRI-DOE Handbook of Energy Storage for Transmission and Distribution Applications, released in December 2003, a landmark collaboration between EPRI and DOE. The first Handbook presented a broad perspective on the potential of energy storage in the national grid, comparative storage technology and benefits assessments, and a review of ten different storage technologies in 14 transmission and distribution (T&D) categories.
The newly revised Electricity Storage Handbook is a how-to guide for utility and rural cooperative engineers, planners, and decision makers to plan and implement energy storage projects. The Handbook also serves as an information resource for investors and venture capitalists, providing the latest developments in technologies and tools to guide their evaluations of energy storage opportunities. It includes a comprehensive database of the cost of current storage systems in a wide variety of electric utility and customer services, along with interconnection schematics. A list of significant past and present energy storage projects is provided for a practical perspective.
The Handbook includes discussion of stationary energy storage systems that use batteries, flywheels, compressed air energy storage (CAES), and pumped hydropower and excludes thermal, hydrogen, and other forms of energy storage that could also support the grid, such as plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) or electric vehicles (EVs). Both DOE and EPRI have separate programs which support PEVs and EVs.
In this Handbook, various perspectives of grid electricity storage are presented for different stakeholders: generators and system operators, load-serving entities (LSEs) with various ownership structures, and customers. The Handbook includes a review of the current status of technical, financial, regulatory, and ownership issues that impact energy storage adoption, primarily with a U.S.-centric focus. Much of the material presented in this edition of the Handbook has been condensed and updated from existing reports from Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), EPRI, NRECA, other national laboratories, and industry sources published from the mid-1980s to the present. This edition presents updated information on storage technologies and their benefits in an operational and regulatory environment and recognizes energy storage as a grid component in further detail than the 2003 Handbook.
Jesse Berst is the founder and Chief Analyst of SGN and Chairman of the Smart Cities Council, an industry coalition.
