Energy storage technologies : A comparative techno-economic analysis with focus on economic value to the customer

Sammanfattning: As the global renewable energy penetration increases, energy storage technologies are being rapidly deployed to compensate for the intermittency and non-dispatchability of variable energy resources. Storage solutions play a crucial role in providing reliability and flexibility, but their growth is subject to a number of barriers. One of the main issues includes the high investment cost and the difficulty of quantifying the services and values they provide. This paper aims to evaluate the sources of customer value for energy storage technologies and analyse their techno-economic viability from a value based pricing or economic value analysis perspective. The work is focused on a thermal Carnot battery, patented under the name TES.POD by the company Azelio, and how it compares to lithium ion battery energy storage. To fulfil the aim of the report, a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods were used motivated by an economic value analysis framework. Through an in-depth literature study, customer values that differentiate the TES.POD with lithium ion battery energy storage were identified and thereafter verified through semi-structured interviews with various stakeholders in the ESS value chain. The cost efficiency of the system was recognized to be the most dominant driver, but apart from this, the value of having a storage technology that is able to provide low-carbon, long-duration storage and heat supply while having no degradation in capacity over a lifetime of 30 years was generally considered to be of most importance for the interviewees. Based on the value prioritization from the interviewees and literature, four economic values were further quantified and analysed in a techno-economic performance model: long-duration storage, heat supply, recyclability and land costs. The model demonstrates the economic value and viability of the TES.POD compared to a lithium-ion battery energy storage system by implementing it for a relevant case study for the mining segment in Huechun, Chile. The results show that the heat savings is the most beneficial differentiation value from an economic point a view. The yearly electricity savings were significantly higher than the heat savings for the specific case study, but the differentiated worth of heat was higher which was also confirmed by analysing the NPV for the different cases. It showed that for a 30 year lifetime, the TES.POD combined heat and power solution is competitive and even more profitable that the BESS case whereas the electricity only application (without considering the heat) is still profitable but not competitive towards the other two solutions.