Electricity Storage

Abstract

Electricity storage technologies emerge as a response to synchronise electricity supply and demand, thus enabling the electrical grid to be managed in a consistent manner. Electricity storage is especially needed in distribution for loadlevelling and for integrating the frequently intermittent renewable resources. In the case of considerable hourly variations of the demand, the levelling of the load would substantially reduce the projected total generating capacity making it more efficient and less costly. In this chapter, we review the main electrical storage technologies. The most common storage devices are batteries, which are highly efficient. Batteries have evolved during the last decades from the lead-acid ones to the lithium ion, which are at present receiving the most attention. If high power, instead of energy management is needed, then the use of ultracapacitors is more appropriate. Evidently, if very large amounts of energy and power are needed, pumped hydro systems constitute the best choice. Other energy storage technologies reviewed in this chapter are compressed air energy storage (CAES), flywheel devices and superconducting systems. © Springer-Verlag London 2013.