Energy Storage and Impact on 

Renewable Power Grid Integration

Fifteenth Annual Symposium on Energy

April 12, 2019, Syracuse University

Nate Blair

Manager, Distributed Systems and Storage 

Analysis Group

Strategic Energy Analysis Center

National Renewable Energy Laboratory
2
NREL | 3

NREL’s Energy Storage Capabilities: A Full Portfolio
4

Energy Storage (and Batteries specifivally) are all over the energy news...

China is now investing in battery manufacturing like they 

invested in PV manufacturing in 2008! I’ve seen the huge 

facilities...

- Speaker, GTM Solar Summit
NREL | 5

A range of 

modes allows 

a wide 

variety of 

applications.

And larger 

production 

volume 

leads to 

greater cost 

reduction. 

APPLICATIONS MODES

Transportation, inverters 

(auxiliary energy), UPS...

Large auxiliary power supply, 

renewable electricity sources, 

electricity grid services...

Wh

kWh –

MWh

MWh –

GWh

Energy Storage Systems: From Watt-Hours to Gigawatt-Hours

NREL | 5
6

Cheaper PV + cheaper batteries = more of both

• SunShot 2030 for Photovoltaics (PV): Envisioning a Low-cost PV Future

o https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy17osti/68105.pdf

o Mid-case storage cost reductions (~$260/kWh by 2030), whereas the other assumes low 

storage costs (LSC) are achieved (~$130/kWh by 2030)

o NOTE: distributed and utility-scale not broken out above.

Mid-case scenario: 2018 

mid-line PV and storage costs

Sunshot Scenario: PV at half 

of today’s price by 2030

Both low cost PV and low 

cost trajectory batteries
7

... are batteries and energy storage necessary for integrating variable solar 

and wind?

... at what levels of solar and wind (10%, 30%, 100%)??

...what specific roles does storage play??

...what are the other methods for integrating more solar/wind into the 

grid?

But... are batteries the answer to everything?
NREL | 8

Grid Flexibility can come from many sources

Source: Cochran et al. (2014). Flexibility in 21st Century Power Systems.
NREL | 9

Energy and 

Capacity

Ancillary 

Services

Transmission 

Services

Distribution 

Services

End-Use 

Applications

mS S Min Hr Day

Energy

Firm Capacity

Fast Frequency Response

Frequency Regulation

Ramping reserves

Contingency Spinning Reserves

Replacement Nonspin Reserves

Voltage Support

Black-Start Capability

Type of 

Service

Primary Frequency Response

Timescale

Transmission Upgade Deferral

Transmission Congestion Relief

Distribution Upgade Deferral

Distribution Voltage Support

Distribution Loss Reduction

Power Quality

Reliability and Resiliency

Demand Charge 

Management

Time of Use and Real-Time 

Pricing

mS S Min Hr Day

Inertial Response

Longer duration 

(>1 hour)

• Peaking capacity resource

• Energy shifting to recover 

curtailed RE, arbitrage prices

• Can also provide transmission 

services

Two Examples of What type?

Potentially Cost 

Effective Storage Applications

Peaking Capacity

Services currently valued 

in some markets

Proposed or early adoption services 

Currently not valued services
NREL | 10

Energy and 

Capacity

Ancillary 

Services

Transmission 

Services

Distribution 

Services

End-Use 

Applications

mS S Min Hr Day

Energy

Firm Capacity

Fast Frequency Response

Frequency Regulation

Ramping reserves

Contingency Spinning Reserves

Replacement Nonspin Reserves

Voltage Support

Black-Start Capability

Type of 

Service

Primary Frequency Response

Timescale

Transmission Upgade Deferral

Transmission Congestion Relief

Distribution Upgade Deferral

Distribution Voltage Support

Distribution Loss Reduction

Power Quality

Reliability and Resiliency

Demand Charge 

Management

Time of Use and Real-Time 

Pricing

mS S Min Hr Day

Inertial Response

Operating Reserves

Shorter duration 

(<1 hour) 

• Regulation reserves to balance 

short-term variability

• Fast frequency response to 

replace lost inertia

Two Examples of What type?

Potentially Cost 

Effective Storage Applications
NREL | 11

General Insights on Storage for Power Systems

• In most power systems, storage is not yet needed to integrate larger amounts of 

variable RE.

• Storage applications need to consider duration, location, and ability to combine 

and monetize multiple services

• Storage is increasingly cost competitive for short-duration ancillary services, and 

long duration applications that combine some elements of capacity, energy and 

transmission services

• As RE penetration increases, this increases the value of storage, and storage 

becomes an increasingly valuable tool for RE integration

– There are important potential tradeoffs when considering co-location of storage 

with RE or siting storage closer to load

• Storage costs continue to drop – therefore, we need to monitor closely
www.nrel.gov

Thank You

Nate.Blair@nrel.gov

This work was authored by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, operated by Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, for the U.S. Department of 

Energy (DOE) under Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308. Funding provided by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable 

Energy Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis. The views expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the views of the DOE or the U.S. 

Government. The U.S. Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. Government retains a 

nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this work, or allow others to do so, for U.S. 

Government purposes.

NREL/PR-6A20-73776