Ensuring security of supply and providing lower energy prices has become a key issue in today’s energy market. Due to the high fluctuations in the renewable generation, there are periods when most of the demand must be covered by conventional energy, which raises the hourly price of energy.

This price could be high for two reasons:

  • As the number of operating hours of thermal power plants is reduced, they must increase the energy selling price to meet their fixed costs for the hours in which they enter the market.
  • The cost of CO2 emission rights, which must be paid by generators, is rising and is not expected to fall in the near future.

Currently, in most cases, gas combined cycle plants are used to provide a rapid response to variations in the generation of renewable energies, entering to cover consumption peaks at a high price.

In this way, conventional plants with rotating equipment connected to the grid are necessary to provide inertia to the system and to be able to respond to the frequency fluctuations caused by energies with high variability.

In this regard, energy storage systems are the answer to accelerate the energy transition and promote the correct integration of renewable energies into the system. They allow energy to be stored at a low price at times when there is excess renewable generation, to then subsequently feed it into the grid when renewable generation is insufficient, at a lower price than conventional plants.

In addition, the development of energy storage systems facilitates a faster response than combined cycle plants to sudden drops in renewable generation, thus reducing the price of consumption peaks.

Energy storage technologies, at the same time, ensure grid stability through participation in auxiliary services markets, at a lower cost than thermal plants and with much faster response times.

These technologies can be applied in new markets to address energy poverty such as, electric mobility or hybridization systems and energy consumption in buildings, as we explain here.

In general, therefore, the energy storage system provides flexibility and stability, enabling it to cope with the variability and predictability of renewable technologies.

At E22, we continue to develop solutions with the firm commitment to offer energy storage technologies that support the spread of renewable energies and provide lower energy prices.