Energy transformation and energy storage in the Midwest and beyond
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REVIEW Energy transformation and energy storage in the Midwest and beyond
Ellen Anderson, Energy Transition Lab, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55108, USA Address all correspondence to Ellen Anderson at [email protected] (Received 17 August 2018; accepted 1 April 2019)
ABSTRACT The electricity sector is transforming quickly, and there is a need to understand the technical, economic, and policy implications. Energy storage will play an important role in the new grid. In the MISO region, the Midwest, and in Minnesota, there are many opportunities and policy questions being explored around energy storage. The electricity grid in the United States is transforming quickly and dramatically. Energy storage will play an important role in this newly designed grid, serving many functions that support a more flexible, highly renewable, and more resilient grid with declining fossil generating plants. The particular role of energy storage in the Midwest, and in Minnesota as a Midwest case study, is described, with a detailed analysis of selected energy storage use cases. The FERC Order 841 and the challenges and opportunities for energy storage in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) region are summarized. Keywords: energy storage; fossil fuel; government policy and funding
DISCUSSION POINTS • How can energy storage be economically deployed in vertically integrated, regulated states? • What changes need to occur at MISO to fully integrate energy storage’s useful attributes? • What are the technology, market, and policy implications for these questions? • How does our grid transformation play out, especially in the Midwest?
Introduction: grid transformation Our electricity grid is evolving very quickly and transforming into a very different system. The most obvious driver of change is the growth of renewable energy. Minnesota’s experience in renewable energy growth is similar to that in many states. As recently as 2001, grid operators and utility engineers testified in legislative committee hearings that at most 1% or 3% renewable energy could be reliably integrated into the grid. Many State Capitol observers said that 20% renewable electricity in the grid was neither technically feasible nor remotely affordable. Fast forward to 2018, when Minnesota utilities met
the 25% Renewable Energy Standard renewable electricity law mandate 7 years ahead of schedule. These changes have been driven by state and federal policy, technology improvements, dramatically falling costs, and increased concerns about climate change. Now, very high penetrations of renewable energy, up to 80–100%, are possible in our lifetime in many regions.1 The perceived technological and economic barriers many experts identified 17 years ago have mostly disappeared, and wind energy is the cheapest electricity resource in the region. While there is still a lot of learning and experience needed to reach 70–80 or 100% renewable electricity, think about the changes that have already occurred. Experts have advanced forecasting abilit
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