ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the application of energy storage to support distributed generator (DG), what it provides and why and when that can be of benefit. It explores the various qualities needed in an energy storage unit in order for it to perform those functions, and compares the various storage methods available. The DG unit will see something akin to a coincident load curve as its load, if the load is connected in parallel with energy storage, so that the energy for the needle peaks is drawn from the storage unit, not the DG unit, with the energy “paid back” by the DG during the next valley. The energy storage required to address one’s needs is quite different from that for energy stabilization. To begin with, the total amount of energy needed to be stored is much greater. Energy storage is needed if a basically non-dispatchable energy source, such as PV, wind, or solar thermal, is to be applied in a dispatchable manner.
