TURBINES

ENERGY STORAGE: WHY

REINVENT THE WHEEL?
BATTERY STORAGE SHOULD BE SUPPLEMENTED WITH PROVEN
TECHNOLOGIES SUCH AS PUMPED HYDRO AND COMPRESSED AIR
ENERGY STORAGE

D
espite rapid expansion, global elec-
tricity storage represents less than Storage Technology Levelized Cost Range ($/MWh)
2% of the world’s electric power
production capacity according to Compressed Air $116 – $140
the Center for Climate and Energy Solu-
tions. In response, subsidies, policy man- Pumped Hydro $152 – $198
dates and innovation are being leveraged
to push storage technologies such as Flow Battery (Vanadium) $314 – $690
rechargeable batteries up to utility scale
and economic viability. Flow Battery (Zinc-Bromine) $434 – $549
Sodium sulfur, lithium ion and flow bat-
teries are all the subject of intense research. Flow Battery (Other) $340 – $630
Numerous startups have sprung up to bring
the latest and greatest to the market. Addi- Lithium-Ion Battery $267 – $561
tionally, there are initiatives around fuel
cells, hydrogen power, superconducting Sodium Battery $301 – $784
magnetic energy storage and numerous
other inventions that hope to unlock low-
cost, large-scale storage. ber 2016) that directly compared these tradi- figures are being finalized but are likely to
But perhaps some of the answer lies in tional approaches with battery storage in easily surpass the previous year.
old-school turbomachinery approaches that terms of $ per MWh. Perhaps it’s time to take another look at
rely on basic mechanical principles. Why Of course, battery storage prices have those golden oldies, pumped hydro and com-
reinvent the wheel when solutions are been declining steadily since that time. pressed air energy storage.
already available? Pumped hydro storage Lazard estimates that the rate of price
and compressed air energy storage are both decline ranges from 4% to 11% per year, Pumped hydro
proven in the field at the size needed to sup- depending on the battery technology. But Pumped hydro storage (PHS) has been
port the scale of modern solar projects and there is bad news on that front. While prices around since the tail end of the nineteenth
wind farms. have been dropping, the U.S. only experi- century. Energy is typically stored by
Taking a look at the capital costs for the enced a 6% fall in battery prices in 2018 pumping water up a hill during low
various forms of energy, pumped hydro and despite the market nearly doubling (350.5 demand periods and storing it in a reser-
compressed air came out well ahead of bat- MW of battery installations), according to voir until it is needed during periods of
tery storage in the last Lazard study (Decem- energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie. 2019 high electricity demand or higher prices.
Water is released to turn turbines that
generate electricity in the same way
777 MWh of storage deployed in U.S. in 2018, growing 80% from 2017 power is generated in hydroelectric plants.
Q4 2018 surpassed previous MWh record by 50% PHS can be constructed at a scale of hun-
400 dreds of megawatts. The stored power can be
350
• Quarter-over-quarter, the U.S. market grew 157%, pushed
ahead primarily by large, long-duration FTM systems.
released over a period of many hours. Despite
• BTM deployments accounted for 35% of MWh deployed in all the headlines about battery and storage
300 Q4 2018. FTM systems, primarily serving applications such
as capacity, tended to have durations of 4 or more hours.
innovation, pumped hydro still accounts for
Deployments (MWh)

250 about 90% of energy storage capacity in the

U.S – 50 facilities adding up to 22 GW.
200
Europe has about double that amount.
150 For example, Portugal has been adding
100
PHS to handle the huge influx of renewables
in recent decades. Two facilities take advan-
50 tage of existing dams to store energy to
- address a growing problem – sudden shifts
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
2013 2013 2013 2013 2014 2014 2014 2014 2015 2015 2015 2015 2016 2016 2016 2016 2017 2017 2017 2017 2018 2018 2018 2018 between abundant renewable resources and
Residential Non-Residential Front-of-the-Meter
power demand.
The Frades I plant in the northwest of
Credit: WoodMac Portugal began in 2005 with an output of
32 Turbomachinery International • January/February 2020 www.turbomachinerymag.com
TURBINES
so of those could help the nation transition to
100% renewables in less than two decades.
“No matter where you are in Australia,
you will find a good pumped hydro site not
very far away from where you, or your wind
or your solar farm is located,” said ANU
engineering professor Andrew Blakers.
Another interesting take on PHS comes
from Michigan Technological University.
Research in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is
considering abandoned metal mines as a
possible home for pumped hydro. These
mines tend to be flooded with groundwater,
which could be pumped through turbines to
generate power. A pilot project in the town
of Negaunee, Michigan is ongoing. If this
goes well, it opens the door to PHS across
the American West which has hundreds of
thousands of old mining sites.

Pumped hydro storage is deployed widely across the world and can operate at utility Compressed air
scale Another alternative storage technology is
Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES).
almost 200 MW. Its success led to the con- The company is currently introducing addi- CAES uses low-cost electricity to inject air
struction of Frades II utilizing two existing tional upgrades to extend the facility’s power at high pressure into underground sites
dams built for hydropower. Power is gener- range through integration of hydraulic short such as salt caverns, disused mines and oil
ated in a powerhouse built inside a cavern circuit technology for variable speed fields and certain geological formations.
which holds two single-stage Francis machines. This should help to increase dis- When demand is high or renewables fall
pump-turbines, and two 420 MVA variable patchability while implementing synthetic off the grid sharply, high-pressure air can
speed asynchronous motor-generators. inertia and frequency containment reserve. be released and used to power natural gas-
Frades I and II now work in tandem to pro- Voith believes these upgrades can make fired turbines, using much less gas than in
vide anywhere from 50 MW to 1,000 MW Frades 2 a showcase for the potential of PHS
as required by the grid and the availability to help Europe achieve its renewable energy
of renewables. and emissions targets.
Voith Hydro and Siemens collaborated PHS won’t work everywhere, however. Oil Mist Separators
in the installation and commissioning of Large reservoirs are required and not all
equipment. Voith supplied Frades 2 with regions possess them. But in places where for rotating machines
both variable speed pump turbines (each hydroelectric facilities already exist, PHS is • Filtration efficiency of 99.99% at 0.1 microns
with a rated output of 390 MW), two asyn- an option. Australia is reported to have more • Quality of lube oil remains constantly high
chronous motor generators (440 MVA each), than 20,000 potential pumped hydro sites. A • 30,000 hours of continuous operation
the frequency converter and control systems study by Australian National University • 1-5 mg/m3 residual oil after filtration
as well as the hydraulic steel components. (ANU) found that building only a dozen or

Compressors (50 MW) SSS Clutches Expanders (110 MW)

Motor/
HP IP-2 IP-1 LP Generator LP HP Exhaust
stack

HP
LP

Aftercooler Intercoolers Fuel

Recuperator
Pressure = 650 psi

Underground storage cavern:

a solution-mined salt dome
FRANKE-Filter GmbH
Wiedhof 9 · 31162 Bad Salzdetfurth · Germany
HP, IP and LP stand for high pressure, intermediate pressure and low pressure,
+49 50 64 904-0 · www.franke-filter.com
respectively. The presence of the clutch means a Compressed Air Energy Storage
(CAES) plant can easily switch between driving the compressor or generating power.
www.turbomachinerymag.com Turbomachinery International • January/February 2020 33
TURBINES
a normal power plant. The German and U.S. CAES plants both UK (North Yorkshire) and in the U.S.
Where CAES exists, it is a resounding use a single powertrain, with self-synchro- (Kansas). For example, Highview is work-
success. However, lack of funding has nizing clutches manufactured by SSS ing with TSK, a Spanish engineering, pro-
inhibited its deployment. There are cur- Clutch. The engagement or disengagement curement and construction (EPC) com-
rently only two major examples in the field. of these clutches controls whether the motor/ pany, to co-develop gigawatt-hour scale
Both utilize a single shaft design consisting generator is used to drive the compressor or cryogenic energy storage system.
of a compressor/expander, a clutch and a generate grid power. “This partnership will help Highview
motor-generator. Since McIntosh, a series of additional Power accelerate momentum for our cryo-
The original CAES facility is in U.S. CAES facilities have been proposed. genic energy storage systems in global mar-
Huntorf, Germany. The 320 MW E.ON The most recent is the 324 MW Bethel kets,” said Javier Cavada, CEO of Highview
Kraftwerke plant was built in 1978. Its two Energy Center in Anderson County, Texas. Power. “It is ideal for applications like
salt caverns have a capacity of 310,000 m3. With a potential storage capacity of around renewable energy shifting, enabling wind
Its 60 MW compressor can fill the reposito- 16,000 MWh, it will provide full power and solar for baseload generation, and
ries in about eight hours, while the 290 MW within 10 minutes from a cold start. Its pur- hybridizing cryogenic storage plants with
turbine operates for two to three hours at an pose is to offer fast-response ancillary ser- traditional thermal generation systems.”
air mass flow rate of 417 kg/sec. Intercoolers vices to help balance renewable energy pro- Highview Power earlier built two cryo-
on the compressor reduce energy require- duction, and storage of up to 48 hours to sup- genic plants for the UK grid. One in
ments for compression. port the growing solar and wind fleet in Slough, Greater London has a capacity of
The success of Huntorf gave rise to a Texas. It can provide the same volume of 2.5 MWh. The other in Bury, Greater
similar plant being commissioned in the U.S. ancillary services as 2,000 MW of combined Manchester has a capacity of 15 MWh.
in 1991. The McIntosh plant in Alabama cycle gas turbines with only 112 MW of Now the company is modularizing its tech-
comprises three Dresser-Rand (now Sie- associated energy production. The project is nology for broader usage. It has partnered
mens) compression trains and a huge salt fully permitted and construction-ready but with Citec of Finland to streamline engi-
cavern. Its compressor can produce about 54 awaits funding. neering and design to be able to deploy
MW and its expander is rated at 114 MW. There are many suitable storage loca- CryoBattery systems more efficiently and
It takes about 40 hours to compress the tions for CAES throughout much of the cost-effectively. The design includes a tur-
chambers. Once done, the generator can world. According to the EPRI, about 85% of boexpander attached to a clutch.
operate at full capacity for 25 hours or so. the U.S. has geologic sites that could work
The unit can perform emergency starts in for CAES. Northern Europe, too, has plenty Conventional funding
nine minutes. The plant runs year round. It of potential sites, some of which are already A lot of money is being spent on battery
provides peaking power when needed and used for natural gas storage. storage R&D and incentives. This is cer-
otherwise helps control the grid in fall and tainly needed to push the technology for-
spring, or provides backup power. The facil- CryoBattery ward. But perhaps some of those funds
ity responds based on market conditions. A modern update to traditional approaches could be allocated to pumped hydro and
Fuel costs, electricity prices and grid condi- to storage comes in the form of CryoBat- CAES. The Australian government, for
tions determine how it operates. tery from Highview Power. Its cryogenic example, has approved close to $10 million
system uses liquid air as the for a startup named Hydrostor that has
storage medium to support developed a new wrinkle on CAES. It aims
power generation, provide to build a 5 MW demonstration plant in
stabilization ser vices to South Australia that takes surplus grid
BUILD YOUR BUSINESS WITH transmission grids and distri- electricity and uses it to pump air into a
TURBOMACHINERY INTERNATIONAL® bution networks, and act as a cavern partially filled with water. Like the
Turbomachinery International is the industry’s technology and business beacon
® source of backup power. Upper Michigan Peninsula PHS pilot, it
for readers worldwide. Decision makers rely on us to keep them informed of the These systems are clean – air seeks to take advantage of a discontinued
latest news in the energy and industrial markets, including engineering
breakthroughs in gas and steam turbines, compressors, expanders, pumps,
in, and nothing but air out mine. Hydrostor claims to have 15 more
combined cycles, instrumentation & control and all associated equipment with standard plant configu- sites in its development pipeline.
and services in land, air and marine-based applications. rations of 50 MW/500 MWh The large-scale deployment of CAES
We furnish all this information in a multi-platform that can be scaled up. and PHS and other systems could offer the
approach to meet your marketing needs. When air comes in, it is support wind and solar need to dominate
• Digital advertising compressed to form a liquid, the grid. Instead of dumping overcapacity
• Print advertising
• Custom content creation
refrigerated and stored in at times when wind or solar generation
• Videos tanks (as opposed to requir- exceed demand or transmission capacity,
• Targeted Emails ing underground caverns). that power could be harnessed to store
• Surveys When needed, the liquid air is energy for use when demand is higher.■
• Lead Nurturing expanded into gas using a tur-
• Webcasts
b o ex p a nde r a nd clut ch
• eBooks
• Podcasts
arrangement to generate
• Whitepapers power. This technology is
• Infographics best suited for long-duration
• eNewsletters applications. Alex Nicolson is a writer
Hig hview Power has and energy consultant
Partner with us today! Contact: an nou nced Cr yoBat ter y based in Southern Cali-
Cybill Tascarella Gerry Mayer
National Sales Manager
732-853-6321
District Manager
(972)816-3534
projects in Spain, the Middle fornia. He has a Masters
[email protected] [email protected]
East and South Africa. The Degree in Mechanical
company is also working on Engineering from
WWW.TURBOMACHINERYMAG.COM
a number of projects in the Glasgow University.
34 Turbomachinery International • January/February 2020 www.turbomachinerymag.com