Energy storage is the necessary infrastructure for the development of new energy. Renewable power generation with wind and scenery as an example is highly uncontrollable. In order to maintain the balance between power supply and power supply in the power grid and ensure the security of the power grid, it is necessary to introduce energy storage as a flexible adjustment resource. Traditional pumped storage and new energy storage technologies such as electrochemical energy storage and compressed air energy storage are blooming. At present, the global energy storage market presents a pattern of large storage in China and the United States and household storage in Europe, and in the future, energy storage will make great contributions to carbon neutrality in the power sector.

New power systems must be regulated by energy storage

The new power system is a new era power system with the basic premise of ensuring energy and power safety, the primary goal of meeting the electricity demand of high-quality economic and social development, the construction of a high proportion of new energy supply and consumption system as the main task, and the coordination and flexible interaction of a number of sources and networks as a strong support. As a key part of the four major sectors of the new power system, the importance of energy storage is self-evident. Electric energy is a kind of ready-to-use energy, the power of the generation side and the power side must match, in order to ensure the stability of the grid.

According to EIA forecasts, wind power will account for 72% of renewable energy generation by 2050, nearly double the share in 2020. Different from traditional thermal power, wind-wind power generation has the characteristics of low inertia, low damping and weak voltage support. In other words, solar power generation has huge volatility, which will make the balance between the power generation side and the power side more difficult to achieve. Therefore, in order to maintain the balance of the grid, many times the wind and solar power generation is not connected to the grid and is wasted. In 2023, the amount of wind and light abandoned in China exceeds 30 billion KWH, corresponding to a value of more than 10 billion yuan. Equipped with energy storage can perfectly solve this problem: when the power of the generation side is too high, the energy storage will store the excess power; When the power load is too high, the energy storage will release the previously stored electric energy, so as to achieve real-time energy matching and ensure the safety and stability of the grid.

The application scenarios of energy storage cover all aspects of the power system

According to the application scenario, energy storage can be divided into power generation side energy storage, power grid side energy storage and power side energy storage. Among them, power generation side energy storage and grid side energy storage are called pre-table energy storage, and power side energy storage is called post-table energy storage. Energy storage on the power side can be further divided into industrial and commercial energy storage and household energy storage according to different subjects.

The energy storage on the power generation side is mainly used for power peak regulation, auxiliary dynamic operation, system frequency modulation and grid connection of renewable energy. Power grid side energy storage is mainly used to alleviate power grid congestion, delay transmission and distribution expansion and upgrading, peak regulation and frequency regulation; The energy storage on the power side is mainly used for self-use of electricity, peak-valley spread arbitrage, capacity and electricity charge management, and improving power supply reliability.

The global energy storage "large storage in China and the United States + European household storage" has erupted

In 2022, the global energy storage market size is 50GWh, of which the United States, EMEA (the combined name of Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and China account for 49.8%, 14.2% and 26.7%, respectively. It is expected that by 2026, the proportion of the three will be 34.3%, 19.2% and 33.7%. From high to low, the proportion of the United States, EMEA, China became the United States, China, EMEA.

Energy storage in a carbon-neutral perspective

In a carbon-neutral future, the power sector, which accounts for the highest share of carbon emissions, will be revolutionized. Renewable energy generation will support the electricity consumption of almost the entire society, in order to achieve the synchronization of electricity generation and consumption, it can be used as a power source, but also as the energy storage of electrical appliances, will be greatly developed. Looking forward to the future, the distribution of energy storage will be all over the power generation side, the power grid side and the power side, the power generation side energy storage will give renewable energy power stations more flexibility than thermal power stations, the grid side energy storage and smart grid construction will achieve accurate power supply and demand matching, the power side energy storage will improve the stability of the power supply of households and enterprises. Even the formation of "photovoltaic + energy storage" spontaneous self-use, each household independent off-grid mode. From the perspective of energy storage technology, pumped storage will still be an important part of energy storage, electrochemical energy storage and other technologies can achieve intra-day flexible adjustment, flywheel energy storage and other technologies can achieve frequency modulation in the power grid in a very short time, compressed air energy storage and hydrogen energy storage will be used as long-term energy storage to achieve cross-day and even cross-quarter energy matching. At this point, the entire electricity from generation to transportation to storage, use will no longer involve carbon emissions, carbon reduction in the power sector will provide the most powerful help for carbon neutrality.