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New Energy World™
New Energy World™ embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low-carbon technologies.
Small-scale renewables, real-time trading and home energy storage
19/10/2022
6 min read
Feature
The emergence of real-time energy trading schemes could boost the use of vanadium redox flow batteries (VFRBs) for home energy storage alongside rooftop solar photovoltaics (PV) in local energy markets, suggests Julia Benz, Research Associate at Guidehouse Insights.
Imagine a future in which regional electricity grids are powered entirely by renewable energy to serve homes and businesses alike – where owners of distributed energy resources (DERs) such as rooftop solar, energy storage and electric vehicles (EVs) receive compensation for not only the energy they produce, but also for these assets’ contribution to grid stability. In this paradigm, energy is used locally where and when it’s needed or can be stored in times of overproduction.
This can be made possible by combining existing technologies – renewable energy systems to power the grid, energy storage systems (ESSs) to fill in gaps related to energy production and peak demand management, and a real-time energy trading mechanism to enable local energy markets (LEMs).
The concept of using energy storage, such as behind the meter (BTM) ESSs or even EVs, to store excess power when renewable generation is high and to dispatch this stored power at later points in the day, such as when the sun is not shining, is known as a virtual power plant (VPP). This concept of pairing energy storage technologies with renewable energy systems is a critical element in helping to combat the infamous ‘duck curve; shown in Fig 1.