Enhancing Gas-Electric Coordination with Energy Storage

Image courtesy of Chad Davis under Attribution 2.0 Generic Deed, resized to 700 x 391 pixels.

The reliability of the bulk electric grid relies on gas-electric coordination, which is challenging and has been a thorn in the side of the utility sector for several years.  Luckily, according to a recent essay from the American Clear Power Association, energy storage technologies could help alleviate this challenge.

How Energy Storage Can Enhance -Electric Coordination

The main challenge of gas-electric coordination is that extremely cold temperatures could negatively impact the ability of natural gas to meet home heating needs while also fueling gas-fired power plants because there is limited pipeline capacity to accomplish both objectives simultaneously during high-demand situations.

Adding to the complexity is that each of these markets functions differently – the gas market utilizes long-term contracts for capacity, whereas the bulk electric system follows a just-in-time model.

With that being said, you may be asking yourself, how can energy storage alleviate these challenges?  Well, let’s start with a definition – as you likely know, energy storage technologies save excess energy when it’s cheap and abundant and re-injects it back into the grid when it is needed the most.

According to the article, energy storage can help gas-electric coordination in the following ways:

• It increases operational flexibility: Gas-fired power plants cannot quickly accommodate shifting environmental conditions because it takes time to ramp up, whereas energy storage can ramp up within seconds.
• It improves reliability while optimizing costs: Stored energy can be deployed when gas is expensive or limited, for example during extreme cold events.
• It can provide a shorter-term option for boosting reliability: Storage deployments can be built much faster than new natural gas pipelines.

Overall, the benefits of storage are hard to deny, and in fact, they’ve already been demonstrated in the real world.  For example, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), storage helped prevent widespread outages during Winter Storm Elliott.  Additionally, proven results have been seen in California during periods of extreme heat.

There’s no doubt about it – optimized gas-electric coordination is critical for overall energy system reliability.