Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS)

Ev fan

To support the national electricity grid in the coming years it seems we need to massively increase our national battery energy storage capacity given increasing installed wind and solar energy generation. Currently we have only 0.4GW storage or 0.8% of total grid. A long way to go - especially if we want to see a much bigger uptake of EVs in the coming years. China is leading with 27GW storage/ 49% of total and the US in second place at 16GW/28%. Our near neighbour the UK seems to be doing significantly better at 3.6GW/6.5%. Information from the Visual Capitalist. Food for thought.

pad406

Those figures don't make much sense.

Although 0.4GW is a very small amount, relative to the size of our grid I would think it's far superior to the other quoted countries. For example the US 16GW is 40 times more than our 0.4, but their grid is a lot more than 40 times the size of ours.

So relative to grid size we're probably ahead.

Or am I mis-understanding the figures?

Ev fan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122778577#Comment_122778577

I'm no expert but I think the % reflects the total size of installed BESS to date worldwide? I was more interested in the comparative numbers and who in particular might be doing well.

bk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058378426/battery-energy-storage-systems-bess

Well I'd just add that EV's shouldn't have much impact on the grid. They mostly are charged at night when demand is low and as a result they are a good way to suck up excess renewable power over night.

Integrating EV chargers with smart chargers and demand response systems would be a good way for EV's to help even out demand curves. In other words, charge when their is high supply, stop charging when their is high demand.

Fast charging sites increasingly are getting their own on site BESS to help even out grid demand.

Where the more concerning demand comes from is data centers and the electrification of heating (heat pumps).

BTW There is actually 1GW worth of energy storage on the grid as of April of this year, 731MW of that being BESS.

Here is some info on the government policy for energy storage going forward:
https://www.energystorageireland.com/2024/07/government-publishes-electricity-storage-policy-framework/

Basically they want to add 500MW more almost immediately and then add rounds of 500MW more as Eirgrid see the need.

I'd point out, that given how quickly the price of batteries and BESS are dropping, that we probably don't want to get ahead of ourselves, we don't want to add BESS faster then we actually need it, or we will end up paying more then we might otherwise do.

Also keep in mind that we are currently in the process of building/commissioning two new interconnectors, one to the UK and one to France, these will also allow us to greatly increase our renewable energy usage.

Ev fan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122779601#Comment_122779601

Thanks for your very informed and knowledgeable response - in particular I was concerned about your 3rd point on fast charging hub capacity when you have hundreds of thousands potentially of EVs on the roads BeSS could be vital then. The other mitigating point could be if battery ranges continue to increase to be comparable to ICE ranges then it may not be a huge issue given that maybe 50% or more of EVs could home charge almost exclusively.