Evaluation of a battery energy storage system in hospitals for arbitrage and ancillary services

Abstract

The ambitious target of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 in the UK, which includes the decarbonisation of heat and electricity, means the increase of instantaneous power from non-dispatchable renewable energy sources (RESs). The intermittency of RESs will cause stability issues for the grid resulting from the mismatch between generation from RES and load demand. Battery energy storage systems (BESS) can match loads with generation and can provide flexibility to the grid. This study is proposing the health sector as a new flexibility services provider for the grid through BESS. The health sector has large loads that run throughout the year, and by managing this load it can provide flexibility to the grid. Four different scenarios have been evaluated for a range of behind-the-meter (BTM) BESS for a hospital in the UK to provide arbitrage and ancillary services considering the option of installing a photovoltaic (PV) system. It was found that BESS would not be economically viable through arbitrage alone since the payback period was always greater than the BESS lifetime. However, bundling services by participating in the ancillary services market resulted in payback periods as low as 3.10 years for some systems, and the net present value (NPV) could reach more than £5 million. This work provides evidence that the health sector can be a significant player in the transition to a renewables-led energy system, an exemplar for other sectors, and one of the solutions to recovery from the COVID19 pandemic.

Impacts of grid‐scale battery systems on power system operation, case of Baltic region

“…Another issue that might arise in power systems with high penetration of renewable generation is the increased need for ancillary services to mitigate the possible stochastic generation down curtailment and the corresponding loss of energy, as discussed in Refs. [78,79].…”

“…System operators [79,[101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109] (Spinning) energy reserves Generating capacity that is either online (spinning) and instantaneously available or available in the matter of minutes (usually <15 min) and can provide output in response to contingency events (e.g., generation or interconnection trip).…”

“…System operators, utility companies, electricity consumers [111][112][113][114] Energy cost optimisation Also known as energy arbitrage or storing power purchased at off-peak times and selling it on-peak Utility companies, electricity consumers [78,79,94,97,[115][116][117][118][119][120] Increased distributed generation self-consumption…”

Energy storage device sizing and energy management in building‐applied photovoltaic systems considering battery degradation

“…Different battery technologies have different effects on the system. Information about batteries with different technologies can be found in [22][23][24][25]. Ref.…”

A new framework for using weather‐sensitive surplus power reserves in critical infrastructure

“…The additional revenue derived by identifying and allocating surplus capacity in this way may support both the security and decarbonization of the wider grid, whilst offsetting some of the installation costs of the reserve power supply technology itself (Mustafa et al, 2021).…”