Deployment of energy storage deployment has reached a cumulative capacity of almost 2GWh in the US, according to the latest report by the non-profit power organisation Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA).
The organisation’s 2019 Utility Energy Storage Market Snapshot found a total of 760MWh of energy storage was deployed in the US energy storage market last year, a 45% increase over 2017.
Utility-scale storage remained the largest segment at 395MWh— an increase of 11.3% year-on-year— as companies in California, Hawaii and Massachusetts ramped up their capacity.
The No.1 utilities in terms of total MWh deployed and watt-hours per customer (Wh/C) were Southern California Edison (154.3MWh) and Kauai Island Utility Co-operative (3,037Wh/C), Hawaii, respectively.
Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (102MWh) was also second in terms of deployment, with Pacific Gas & Electric ranked third with 73MWh.
In the Wh/C rankings, the utilities ranked 2-4 were all based in Massachusetts: Sterling Municipal Light Department (523Wh/C), the City of Holyoke (341.6Wh/C) and Braintree Electric Light Department (240.5Wh/C).
In terms of growth, the report found residential storage deployment grew 500%, while non-residential storage showed a 35% growth in 2018 compared to the previous year.
Mac Keller, co-lead author and research associate at SEPA, said: “Energy storage deployments are accelerating, driven by increasingly compelling economics, favourable state policies, and residential programmes in California, Hawaii, and Vermont.
“Beyond traditional back-up generation, battery storage is able to provide ancillary services, ramping, smoothing, and peaking services to meet the demands of an increasingly diversified and distributed electrical system.
“Based on these expanded applications, coupled with the emergence of long-duration technologies, the energy storage market is primed for continued growth.”
Now in its 3rd year, the Utility Energy Storage Market Snapshot relies on interconnection data and market insights obtained directly from 211 electric utilities, representing approximately 56% of all customer accounts in the US.
