Don’t Rely on Batteries!
Further to the Telegraph article about covert attacks on the UK electricity grid, the topic of battery storage came up in the Telegraph comments – the gist was that we needed much more storage to avert the problem.
Earlier today, I came across a DESNZ report on storage, which stated:
I am frankly amazed they don’t track the energy capacity, as this is the only figure that matters.
But an average of 1-hour storage, as implied, is enough to run the grid for about 15 minutes.
Given the unaffordability of large scale storage, the only role for batteries is short term balancing – fast reaction to frequency changes, for instance, to keep things ticking over for a few minutes while gas plants get up and running.
Keep counting them worry beads!
source notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com