How do you calculate grid-scale battery costs?

Grid-scale battery costs can be measured in $/kW or $/kWh terms. Thinking in kW terms is more helpful for modelling grid resiliency. A good rule of thumb is that grid-scale lithium ion batteries will have 4-hours of storage duration, as this minimizes per kW costs and maximizes the revenue potential from power price arbitrage.

What is utility or grid-scale battery storage?

Utility or Grid-Scale Battery Storage is essentially what it sounds like: the use of industrial power batteries to store energy that can be accessed when needed. Picture the battery that’s in your cellphone.

What is the capacity of a grid-scale battery?

The capacity of grid-scale batteries is typically measured in megawatt hours (MWh), which explains how long the battery can replace a specific amount of generated electricity per hour. Most modern grid-scale batteries have up to four hours of storage capacity at maximum output.

Why do we need a grid-scale battery in Atlantic Canada?

As Atlantic Canada adds more renewable energy sources to the grid, such as wind and solar, there will be times when there is limited generation from sun or wind, but demand still exists. Grid-scale batteries have fast-response power (measured in seconds) to back up generation to ensure reliability.

How many hours can a grid-scale battery last?

Most modern grid-scale batteries have up to four hours of storage capacity at maximum output. For example, Nova Scotia Power plans to install three grid-scale battery projects in the near future. Each of the projects have a maximum of 50MW of output for 4 hours, or 200MWh of capacity.

How many homes can a grid-scale battery store?

One of these grid-scale batteries sites can store enough electricity to power approximately 10,000 homes for a four-hour period and would provide an equal amount of power as one carbon-based fuel generating unit that we currently rely on when the load on the grid is high.