IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/wireae/v11y2022i3ne431.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the economics of storage for electricity: Current state and future market design prospects

Author

Listed:
  • Reinhard Haas
  • Claudia Kemfert
  • Hans Auer
  • Amela Ajanovic
  • Marlene Sayer
  • Albert Hiesl

Abstract

Since the early beginnings of the electricity system, storage has been of high relevance for balancing supply and demand. Through expanded electricity production by variable renewable technologies such as wind and photovoltaics, the discussion about new options for storage technologies is emerging. In addition, the electricity markets were subject to remarkable alterations. Some developments which describe these changes are increasing electricity generation from variable renewables and the continuing decentralization. These developments have led, among other required transformations, to demands for additional capacities of storage technologies. However, their economics will play a crucial role in their effective market penetration in the following years. The core objective of this work is to conduct a review on the relevance of storage options for electricity and its costs, economics, welfare effects, and on issues of electricity market design. In addition, based on expected Technological Learning prospects for future economics are derived. The major result is that the perspectives of electricity storage systems from an economic viewpoint are highly dependent on the storage's operation time, the nature of the overall system, availability of other flexibility options, and sector coupling. All market‐based storage technologies have to prove their performance in the large electricity markets or if applied decentralized, the (battery) systems compete with the electricity prices at the final customers level when the battery costs are also taken into consideration. Yet, new storage capacities should only be added when it is clear that electricity generation from variable renewables will also be expanded in a way that excess generation is expected. This article is categorized under: Policy and Economics > Green Economics and Financing Energy and Power Systems > Energy Infrastructure Emerging Technologies > Energy Storage

Suggested Citation

  • Reinhard Haas & Claudia Kemfert & Hans Auer & Amela Ajanovic & Marlene Sayer & Albert Hiesl, 2022. "On the economics of storage for electricity: Current state and future market design prospects," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(3), May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:wireae:v:11:y:2022:i:3:n:e431
    DOI: 10.1002/wene.431
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/wene.431
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/wene.431?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Parra, David & Zhang, Xiaojin & Bauer, Christian & Patel, Martin K., 2017. "An integrated techno-economic and life cycle environmental assessment of power-to-gas systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 440-454.
    2. Topalović, Zejneba & Haas, Reinhard & Ajanović, Amela & Hiesl, Albert, 2022. "Economics of electric energy storage. The case of Western Balkans," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(PA).
    3. Joachim Geske and Richard Green, 2020. "Optimal Storage, Investment and Management under Uncertainty: It is Costly to Avoid Outages!," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 1-28.
    4. Wolf-Peter Schill & Jochen Diekmann & Alexander Zerrahn, 2015. "Power Storage: An Important Option for the German Energy Transition," DIW Economic Bulletin, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 5(10), pages 137-146.
    5. McPherson, Madeleine & Johnson, Nils & Strubegger, Manfred, 2018. "The role of electricity storage and hydrogen technologies in enabling global low-carbon energy transitions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 649-661.
    6. Wolf-Peter Schill, Alexander Zerrahn, and Friedrich Kunz, 2017. "Prosumage of solar electricity: pros, cons, and the system perspective," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    7. Javier L'opez Prol & Wolf-Peter Schill, 2020. "The Economics of Variable Renewables and Electricity Storage," Papers 2012.15371, arXiv.org.
    8. Afzal S. Siddiqui, Ramteen Sioshansi, and Antonio J. Conejo, 2019. "Merchant Storage Investment in a Restructured Electricity Industry," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    9. Warren B. Powell & Abraham George & Hugo Simão & Warren Scott & Alan Lamont & Jeffrey Stewart, 2012. "SMART: A Stochastic Multiscale Model for the Analysis of Energy Resources, Technology, and Policy," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 24(4), pages 665-682, November.
    10. Sioshansi, Ramteen & Denholm, Paul & Jenkin, Thomas & Weiss, Jurgen, 2009. "Estimating the value of electricity storage in PJM: Arbitrage and some welfare effects," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 269-277, March.
    11. Zerrahn, Alexander & Schill, Wolf-Peter & Kemfert, Claudia, 2018. "On the economics of electrical storage for variable renewable energy sources," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 259-279.
    12. Steffen, Bjarne & Weber, Christoph, 2016. "Optimal operation of pumped-hydro storage plants with continuous time-varying power prices," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 252(1), pages 308-321.
    13. Schill, Wolf-Peter, 2014. "Residual load, renewable surplus generation and storage requirements in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 65-79.
    14. Sinn, Hans-Werner, 2017. "Buffering volatility: A study on the limits of Germany's energy revolution," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 130-150.
    15. Crampes, Claude & Moreaux, Michel, 2010. "Pumped storage and cost saving," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 325-333, March.
    16. Bloess, Andreas & Schill, Wolf-Peter & Zerrahn, Alexander, 2018. "Power-to-heat for renewable energy integration: A review of technologies, modeling approaches, and flexibility potentials," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 1611-1626.
    17. Bloess, Andreas & Schill, Wolf-Peter & Zerrahn, Alexander, 2018. "Power-to-heat for renewable energy integration: A review of technologies, modeling approaches, and flexibility potentials," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 1611-1626.
    18. Ramteen Sioshansi, 2011. "Increasing the Value of Wind with Energy Storage," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 1-30.
    19. Karl Anton Zach & Hans Auer, 2016. "Contribution of bulk energy storage to integrating variable renewable energies in future European electricity systems," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(4), pages 451-469, July.
    20. Burgholzer, Bettina & Auer, Hans, 2016. "Cost/benefit analysis of transmission grid expansion to enable further integration of renewable electricity generation in Austria," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 189-196.
    21. Schill, Wolf-Peter, 2020. "Electricity Storage and the Renewable Energy Transition," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 4(10), pages 2059-2064.
    22. Ajanovic, Amela & Hiesl, Albert & Haas, Reinhard, 2020. "On the role of storage for electricity in smart energy systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    23. Wolf-Peter Schill & Claudia Kemfert, 2011. "Modeling Strategic Electricity Storage: The Case of Pumped Hydro Storage in Germany," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 59-88.
    24. Ferreira, Helder Lopes & Garde, Raquel & Fulli, Gianluca & Kling, Wil & Lopes, Joao Pecas, 2013. "Characterisation of electrical energy storage technologies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 288-298.
    25. Sioshansi, Ramteen, 2014. "When energy storage reduces social welfare," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 106-116.
    26. Henok Ayele Behabtu & Maarten Messagie & Thierry Coosemans & Maitane Berecibar & Kinde Anlay Fante & Abraham Alem Kebede & Joeri Van Mierlo, 2020. "A Review of Energy Storage Technologies’ Application Potentials in Renewable Energy Sources Grid Integration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-20, December.
    27. Wolf-Peter Schill & Alexander Zerrahn & Claudia Kemfert & Christian von Hirschhausen, 2018. "Die Energiewende wird nicht an Stromspeichern scheitern," DIW aktuell 11, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    28. Staudt, Philipp & Schmidt, Marc & Gärttner, Johannes & Weinhardt, Christof, 2018. "A decentralized approach towards resolving transmission grid congestion in Germany using vehicle-to-grid technology," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 1435-1446.
    29. Dallinger, Bettina & Schwabeneder, Daniel & Lettner, Georg & Auer, Hans, 2019. "Socio-economic benefit and profitability analyses of Austrian hydro storage power plants supporting increasing renewable electricity generation in Central Europe," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 482-496.
    30. Albert Hiesl & Amela Ajanovic & Reinhard Haas, 2020. "On current and future economics of electricity storage," Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 10(6), pages 1176-1192, December.
    31. Ramteen Sioshansi, 2010. "Welfare Impacts of Electricity Storage and the Implications of Ownership Structure," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 173-198.
    32. Peter Greim & A. A. Solomon & Christian Breyer, 2020. "Assessment of lithium criticality in the global energy transition and addressing policy gaps in transportation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-11, December.
    33. Björn Nykvist & Måns Nilsson, 2015. "Rapidly falling costs of battery packs for electric vehicles," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 5(4), pages 329-332, April.
    34. Steffen, Bjarne & Weber, Christoph, 2013. "Efficient storage capacity in power systems with thermal and renewable generation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 556-567.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. López Prol, Javier & Zilberman, David, 2023. "No alarms and no surprises: Dynamics of renewable energy curtailment in California," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    2. López Prol, Javier & de Llano Paz, Fernando & Calvo-Silvosa, Anxo & Pfenninger, Stefan & Staffell, Iain, 2024. "Wind-solar technological, spatial and temporal complementarities in Europe: A portfolio approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    3. Ajanovic, Amela & Sayer, Marlene & Haas, Reinhard, 2024. "On the future relevance of green hydrogen in Europe," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 358(C).
    4. Topalović, Zejneba & Haas, Reinhard & Sayer, Marlene, 2024. "Economic benefits of PHS and Li-ion storage. Study cases: Austria and Bosnia and Herzegovina," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 362(C).
    5. Parra, David & Mauger, Romain, 2022. "A new dawn for energy storage: An interdisciplinary legal and techno-economic analysis of the new EU legal framework," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    6. Mirosława Szewczyk & Anna Szeliga-Duchnowska, 2022. "Make Hay While the Sun Shines: Beneficiaries of Renewable Energy Promotion," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-15, May.
    7. Mehmet C. Yagci & Thomas Feldmann & Elmar Bollin & Michael Schmidt & Wolfgang G. Bessler, 2022. "Aging Characteristics of Stationary Lithium-Ion Battery Systems with Serial and Parallel Cell Configurations," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-19, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Albert Hiesl & Amela Ajanovic & Reinhard Haas, 2020. "On current and future economics of electricity storage," Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 10(6), pages 1176-1192, December.
    2. Javier L'opez Prol & Wolf-Peter Schill, 2020. "The Economics of Variable Renewables and Electricity Storage," Papers 2012.15371, arXiv.org.
    3. Helm, Carsten & Mier, Mathias, 2021. "Steering the energy transition in a world of intermittent electricity supply: Optimal subsidies and taxes for renewables and storage," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    4. Intini, Mario & Waterson, Michael, 2020. "Do British wind generators behave strategically in response to the Western Link interconnector?," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 455, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    5. Martin Kittel & Wolf-Peter Schill, 2024. "Measuring the Dunkelflaute: How (not) to analyze variable renewable energy shortage," Papers 2402.06758, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2024.
    6. Helm, Carsten & Mier, Mathias, 2019. "Subsidising Renewables but Taxing Storage? Second-Best Policies with Imperfect Carbon Pricing," VfS Annual Conference 2019 (Leipzig): 30 Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall - Democracy and Market Economy 203539, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    7. Zerrahn, Alexander & Schill, Wolf-Peter & Kemfert, Claudia, 2018. "On the economics of electrical storage for variable renewable energy sources," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 108, pages 259-279.
    8. Blanco, Herib & Faaij, André, 2018. "A review at the role of storage in energy systems with a focus on Power to Gas and long-term storage," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P1), pages 1049-1086.
    9. Carsten Helm & Mathias Mier, 2018. "Subsidising Renewables but Taxing Storage? Second-Best Policies with Imperfect Pricing," Working Papers V-413-18, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Oct 2018.
    10. Williams, Olayinka & Green, Richard, 2022. "Electricity storage and market power," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    11. Steffen, Bjarne & Weber, Christoph, 2016. "Optimal operation of pumped-hydro storage plants with continuous time-varying power prices," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 252(1), pages 308-321.
    12. De Vivero-Serrano, Gustavo & Bruninx, Kenneth & Delarue, Erik, 2019. "Implications of bid structures on the offering strategies of merchant energy storage systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C), pages 1-1.
    13. Paul Neetzow & Roman Mendelevitch & Sauleh Siddiqui, 2018. "Modeling Coordination between Renewables and Grid: Policies to Mitigate Distribution Grid Constraints Using Residential PV-Battery Systems," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1766, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    14. Debia, Sébastien & Pineau, Pierre-Olivier & Siddiqui, Afzal S., 2021. "Strategic storage use in a hydro-thermal power system with carbon constraints," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    15. Neetzow, Paul & Mendelevitch, Roman & Siddiqui, Sauleh, 2019. "Modeling coordination between renewables and grid: Policies to mitigate distribution grid constraints using residential PV-battery systems," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 1017-1033.
    16. Csereklyei, Zsuzsanna & Kallies, Anne & Diaz Valdivia, Andres, 2021. "The status of and opportunities for utility-scale battery storage in Australia: A regulatory and market perspective," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    17. Ramteen Sioshansi & Paul Denholm & Thomas Jenkin, 2012. "Market and Policy Barriers to Deployment of Energy Storage," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    18. Martin Kittel & Wolf-Peter Schill, 2021. "Renewable Energy Targets and Unintended Storage Cycling: Implications for Energy Modeling," Papers 2107.13380, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2021.
    19. Zafirakis, Dimitrios & Chalvatzis, Konstantinos J. & Baiocchi, Giovanni & Daskalakis, Georgios, 2016. "The value of arbitrage for energy storage: Evidence from European electricity markets," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 971-986.
    20. Neetzow, Paul & Pechan, Anna & Eisenack, Klaus, 2018. "Electricity storage and transmission: Complements or substitutes?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 367-377.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:wireae:v:11:y:2022:i:3:n:e431. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=2041-8396 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.