Energy storage backfires on the grid

How will energy storage affect the power grid?

Simultaneous with this increase in renewables with energy storage, the incidence of disturbance events such as extreme weather that cause significant faults and failures on the power grid is also expected to increase.

Did New York's grid battery storage facilities catch fire?

And yet, between May and July 2023, New York had had three large fires at the grid battery storage facilities built up to that time: On May 31, a battery that NextEra Energy Resources had installed at a substation in East Hampton caught fire.

Do grid-scale batteries cause spontaneous fires?

Grid-scale batteries must store thousands of megawatt-hours of electricity, compared to maybe 100 kWh for an EV. It seems that the frequency of these spontaneous fires increases with the size of the battery. Can this problem be solved? I have no idea. But it certainly has not been solved yet.

Is excessive energy storage a problem?

Spyros Foteinis highlights the acknowledged problem that an insufficient capacity to store energy can result in generated renewable energy being wasted (Nature 632, 29; 2024). But the risks for power-system security of the converse problem — excessive energy storage — have been mostly overlooked.

Why is energy storage oversupply a problem?

The expansion is driven mainly by local governments and lacks coordination with new energy stations and the power grid. In some regions, a considerable storage oversupply could lead to conflicts in power-dispatch strategies across timescales and jurisdictions, increasing the risk of system instability and large-scale blackouts.

Are battery-based energy storage systems the future?

Battery–based energy storage systems (ESSs) will likely continue to be widely deployed, and advances in battery technologies are expected to enable increased capacity, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness.