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NETWORK / 20 / APRIL 2016 E nergy storage is at a tipping point. The major barriers to widespread deployment – a multitude of regulatory legacies – are set to be addressed this year, and the rst real source of revenue in the form of National Grid's enhanced frequency response is currently being procured. Those in the industry say at least some of the technology is ready and nancially viable, and a plethora of trial and pre-commercial projects are being tested across the UK. Wide-scale deploy- ment may not be far o . Attention is now being turned to how the business case stacks up. In the process of enabling smarter grids and more eƒ cient use of the system, how will revenue be created and who will be targeting this market? There are several potential revenue streams for energy storage projects, depending on the technology type and response time. National Grid's new enhanced frequency response will provide revenue for the quickest, while grid support is likely to be undertaken by … ow batteries, which, while also quick to respond, are more suited to heavy industrial applications. The consensus is that, to be Submissions of interest for National Grid's EFR service Power to gas 1 Battery/DSR 9 Diesel rotary UPS 50 Coal/biomass 50 Diesel/battery 40 Flywheel 56 DSR 100 Supercapacitor 25 Battery 888 LAES 2 Interconnector 150 Capacity (MW) Flow batteries Superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) Flywheel (high-speed) Hydrogen Supercapacitor Synthetic natural gas Adiabatic CAES Thermochemical Research and development Electricity storage Thermal storage Demonstration and deployment Commercialisation Molten salt Lithium-based batteries Flywheel (low-speed) Ice storage Sodium-sulphur (NaS) batteries Compressed air energy storage (CAES) Residential hot water heaters with storage Cold water storage Underground thermal energy storage (UTES) Pit storage Pumped storage hydropower (PSH) Technology maturity levels Power requirement versus discharge duration for some applications in today's energy system 1 GW 100 MW 10 MW 1 MW 100 kW 10 kW 1 kW Electricity-only applications Thermal-only applications Electricity and thermal applications Discharge duration Capacity Microsecond Second Minute Hour Day Week Month Voltage support Spinning and non-spinning reserve Demand shifting and peak reduction Variable supply resource integration Arbitrage Frequency regulation Load following Seasonal storage Waste Demand Transmission and distribution (T&D) Supply Off-grid Black start pro table, energy storage owners must be able to tap into several revenue streams. The speed of market growth over the next couple of years depends heavily on the eƒ ciency of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) in removing a series of barriers presented by the structure of the industry a‹ er privatisation. A Decc consultation on energy storage is expected in spring, and already the industry has a "short menu" of asks (right), some of which have found a warmer welcome at Decc than others. For instance, David Capper, the department's head of future electricity networks, told delegates at Utility Week's recent Future Networks conference that oƒ cials are dubious about the merits of introducing a separate licence for storage. In any case, Decc is unlikely to clarify its position on energy storage until autumn, so energy storage developers face the prospect of connecting in an uncertain regime to qualify for National Grid's frequency response, but operating under another. Beyond the lobbying however, the market is continuing to evolve and National Grid's introduction of its enhanced frequency response (EFR) service was a signi cant moment for the energy storage industry. It re… ects the grid's recognition that energy storage is both important to the future of system operation and that parts of the technology landscape may be ready to deliver support now. EFR primarily looks for storage systems that can provide 100% active power output within a second of registering a frequency deviation. National Grid's commercial development manager Leon Walker says the company decided to tender for the new service a‹ er receiving multiple individual requests from storage developers. Although the service is open to any technology, the short response time means batteries are by far the most likely technologies to ful l the service. At the end of 2015, National Grid invited expressions of interest, and says it has been "overwhelmed" by the response – a total capacity of 1,370MW has been registered. The company wants to contract 200MW for a period of about four years in the initial trial, although many of the details of the structure have yet to be decided. Tendering is due to end in April or May, with the start date set for 2017. ž ENERGY STORAGE Source: International Energy Agency