Applications
See the menu at left for discussions of individual storage applications.
Reduced Need for Generation Capacity
If the electricity storage capability is sufficiently large compared to the users’ requirements or utility generation capacity, it can be used in lieu of central generation capacity. If so, the several costs associated with ownership of a power plant are avoided. Equivalently, the cost to “rent” capacity in the wholesale electricity marketplace is avoided. In some sense this couples directly with arbitrage and the assignment of value to the two aspects depends on the method of charges set up by the utility.
Updated May 2009