Selecting the best energy storage technology for grid applications | Energy Storage | Generation & Storage | Energy Central

KEMA, a global provider of business and technical consulting, testing and certification has enhanced its suite of consulting services for evaluating energy storage solutions. ES-Select, a new energy storage performance modeling tool, provides more meaningful analyses to determine the return-on-investment of available and emerging technologies.

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.

ES-Select allows KEMA clients to choose storage technology for multiple simultaneous applications like transmission and distribution upgrade deferral and area regulation. ES-Select offers probabilistic distributions for cost, payback, and other key decision-making parameters. Free trials of the software are available for download athttp://www.kema.com/ES-select/.