The US state of California is leading the charge in energy storage innovation with Australia in a unique opportunity to learn from its successes and challenges.
In a recent interview with ecogeneration, Dr Asma Aziz, Senior Lecturer in Power Engineering at Edith Cowan University, shared her insights on what Australia can learn from California’s experience in designing and developing energy storage systems.
According to Aziz, both California and Australia have large solar markets. However, she said California is doing a better job in addressing the challenges posed by the “duck curve”.
The “duck curve” is a phenomenon where electricity demand peaks in the morning and evening, with a significant dip in the middle of the day when solar energy is abundant.
“Battery storage can use solar energy to store charge and then deliver energy when it is required later in the day during the evening peak demand period,” Aziz said.
“When we have a lot of solar or battery storage, they can store solar energy and deliver it when needed, particularly in the evening when more people are using it. This helps to overcome peak demand and reduces reliance on gas supply.”
Aziz said California has shown that grid-scale batteries can be an effective solution in storing excess solar power for use during periods of high demand.
However, this requires batteries to be built in volume to influence the grid. She noted that Australia is still far behind California in terms of utility-scale battery storage capacity, with approximately 2600 megawatt-hours of battery storage as of December 2023, compared to California’s 60 gigawatts.
When asked about the lessons Australia can learn from California’s experience, Aziz highlighted the importance of having a market that supports battery integration into the grid.
“We need that kind of market,” she said.
“If battery developers want to invest in battery storage projects, they need to have a guarantee that they will be properly compensated for the services they provide.”
Infrastructure development is another critical area where Australia must focus its efforts.
“Besides the market, the necessary infrastructure should be in place. For example, if you are placing battery storage near wind farms, solar farms, or near the load centre, but you don’t have the means to transfer the energy from storage or from the generator to the consumers, then it is of no use,” Aziz said.
She also added that investing in grid upgrades will facilitate the efficient transfer of stored energy to consumers, maximising the benefits of battery storage.
Finally, timing and strategic planning are crucial as Australia transitions from coal to renewable energy.
Aziz emphasised to ecogeneration that having a clear roadmap can help identify the opportunities and challenges associated with integrating battery storage into the grid. The Australian Energy Market Operator forecasts that 20 per cent of renewable energy production could be curtailed by 2050, underscoring the need for timely deployment of storage solutions.
California’s experience shows the importance of having new generation, storage, and backup capacity in place before retiring older coal plants, Aziz said.
With 11 billion watt-hours of battery storage under construction, Australia is on the right path, but more needs to be done.
In addition, Aziz discussed the importance of having a diverse range of energy storage technologies.
“Battery storage is not the only source for reaching our target,” she said. “We need to have proper calculations and methods to determine how much storage is actually required for renewable integration.
“Batteries have a certain lifetime and cycles, so they degrade over time impacting reliability. We need more diverse resources to support the grid…We can’t just rely on lithium-ion batteries.
“Pumped hydro storage is very good, they can run in baseload mode but are very location-specific and costly to develop.
“Vanadium redox flow batteries are being explored, they can offer much longer duration storage.”
This article featured in the October edition of ecogeneration.
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