How much does storing electricity cost?

Figure 3 depicts the overall costs of storing electricity in new plants or devices for various storage systems for the year 2018, including costs for capital, electricity, and operating and maintenance (O&M). As observed, a huge range exists for the spread of the overall costs—from about 8 cents/kWh up to close to 1 EUR/kWh.

How much does energy storage cost per kilowatt?

Importantly, the profitability of serving prospective energy-storage customers even within the same geography and paying a similar tariff can vary by $90 per kilowatt of energy storage installed per year because of customer-specific behaviors.

Does storage reduce the cost of electricity?

In general, they conclude that storage provides only a small contribution to meet residual electricity peak load in the current and near-future energy system. This results in the statement that each new storage deployed in addition to the existing ones makes the price spread smaller, see Figure 16, and, hence, reduces its own economic benefits.

How can we discuss future electricity storage cost?

A new approach to discuss future electricity storage cost is introduced by McPherson et al. ( 2018 ), using the integrated assessment mode MESSAGE to include the uncertainties of VARET provision and abatement cost.

Do storage costs compete with electricity prices?

In this context, storage costs compete with the price of electricity for end consumers, and if they are less than the final electricity prices (with all fees and taxes considered but not including the fixed costs), then the costs of storage demonstrate a positive economic performance.

Do we need more storage for electricity?

A comprehensive study by Schill et al. ( 2015) concludes that in the short and medium-term, no significant extension of storage for electricity is required, given that other flexibility measures are used. In the long term, higher amounts of VARET, as well as bigger capacities of storage will be needed.