Home energy storage devices store power locally for later use. Electrochemical energy storage products, also known as battery energy storage systems (or BESS for short), have rechargeable batteries at their core, usually based on lithium-ion or lead-acid batteries, controlled by computers with intelligent software to handle the charging and discharging cycles. The company is also leveraging their expertise in battery platform technology to develop small flow battery systems for home use.
As local energy storage technologies for home use, they are a smaller relative of battery-based grid energy storage and support the concept of distributed generation. When used in conjunction with on-site generation, they can virtually eliminate blackouts in an off-grid lifestyle.
The stored energy typically comes from on-site solar photovoltaic panels generated during the day and stored electricity consumed after sunset, when energy demand in unoccupied homes peaks during the day. Small wind turbines are less common, but can still be used in homes as a supplement or alternative to solar panels. Electric cars used on weekdays need to be charged overnight, making them ideal for home energy storage in homes with solar panels and low power use during the day.
As a result of the growing popularity of smart meters, smart tariffs will increasingly be used in combination with home energy storage devices to take advantage of low off-peak prices and avoid high-priced energy at times of peak demand.
Home energy storage has the following advantages:
1. Overcoming Grid losses
Because of transmission losses in the grid, transmission of power from power stations to population centers is inherently inefficient, especially in power-intensive urban clusters where power stations are difficult to locate. By allowing a greater proportion of on-site generation to be consumed on-site rather than exported to the energy grid, home energy storage devices can reduce grid transportation inefficiencies.
2. Energy grid support
Home energy storage devices, when connected to servers via the Internet, can theoretically be ordered to provide a very short-term service to the energy grid: reducing peak demand pressure – providing short-term demand response during periods of peak demand, reducing the need for inefficient operation of short-term generating assets such as diesel generators.
Frequency correction – Provides ultra-short-term correction to keep the power frequency within the tolerance range required by the regulator (for example, 50Hz or 60Hz+/-n%).
3. Reduce reliance on chemical dyes
As a result of these efficiencies and their ability to increase the amount of solar energy consumed on site, these devices reduce the amount of electricity generated by the use of fossil fuels (i.e., natural gas, coal, oil and diesel).
In Europe, Japan, Australia, the United States, and other countries and regions where electricity prices are high, one of the main economic drivers for household PV + energy storage applications is to increase the level of electricity self-utilization to delay and reduce the risk of electricity price increases. At the same time, with rising electricity prices and rapidly declining PV system costs, strong and stable new PV installations in these regions provide a solid market for energy storage applications.
In the future, with the large-scale development of global renewable energy and the continuous improvement of requirements for power systems, electrochemical energy storage technology will have a broad application space in power systems.
Also read: The Best Home Design for Your Tech-Obsessed Millennial
