ABSTRACT
Energy storage currently plays an important role in the electric utility industry. On the current electricity grid, storage capacity has been developed to accumulate energy produced by large, less responsive thermal generation plants and then redispatch it based on peak demand. Storage facilities were largely ˆnanced by arbitrage (buying energy at a low price and selling it at a higher price). In addition to the beneˆts derived by utility companies from arbitrage, energy storage currently contributes to reliability, efˆciency, power quality, transmission optimization, and black-start functions. Although different end functions of energy storage affect production, the sole purpose of storage is to increase operational £exibility. The various energy storage technologies allow generation to be followed by distribution on demand within the constraints of storage capacity and the systems in which they function.
