New tool calculates payback times for energy storage
Energy and utility consulting firm KEMA has come out with a new energy storage performance modeling tool designed to help determine returns on investment in available and emerging technologies.
ES-Select offers probabilistic distributions for cost, payback and other key decision-making parameters. It’s targeted at companies looking to choose an energy storage technology for multiple, simultaneous applications like transmission and distribution upgrade deferral and area regulation.
“The best decision-making tools allow clients to evaluate as much information as possible,” said Ali Nourai, KEMA’s executive consultant. “In the nascent grid-scale storage industry, quantifying and comparing products is not as easy as it might sound. KEMA’s energy storage modeling tools offer clients the ability to conduct careful analysis of the many interrelated factors that influence energy storage performance and the total cost of an energy storage system.”
Energy storage technologies can vary extensively — from an electric battery to a flywheel — with corresponding differences in deliverable power, efficiency, discharge time, cycle life and other operational characteristics. Uncertainty about the total cost and value of an energy storage device makes it difficult to determine payback. A number of business factors also influence the decision-making process, including:
- The actual installed cost of the device,
- The device’s number of applications,
- The ability to monetize the intended benefits of the application.
KEMA is offering free trials of the software on its website.
