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EVENTS | NEWS | ARCHIVES

     
EVENTS

ESA Logo2009 Annual Meeting Electricity Storage Assoc. (ESA)

The Electricity Storage Association (ESA) will conduct its 2009 Annual Meeting on May 20 – 22, 2009 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington DC. The theme of the meeting will be "ELECTRICITY STORAGE .. ADDING VALUE TO THE MODERN GRID.” The event will feature the first technology showcase for products and services targeted at electricity storage in the grid. For details: http://electricitystorage.org.

EESAT 2009: International Conference on Electrical Energy Storage

EESAT 2009, co-sponsored by the US DOE and the Electricity Storage Assoc (ESA) and managed by Sandia National Laboratories, will take place October 4- 7, 2009 at the Renaissance Seattle Hotel in Seattle, Washington (USA).

Biennial EESAT conferences are the premier forum for dissemination review, and discussion of papers and presentations by international experts from around the globe on a full range of Electrical Energy Storage applications and technologies.

The EESAT Organizing Committee urges all interested persons to consider submission of a formal paper for presentation at EESAT 2009. For information: http://www.sandia.gov/eesat/.

ORNL logo SNL logo DOE logo
2008 DOE Peer Review Meeting on Energy Storage

The FY08 Peer Review Meeting for the DOE Energy Storage and Power Electronics Program (ESPE) was held in Washington DC on Sept. 29-30, 2008. Current and completed program projects were presented and reviewed by a group of industry professionals.

The 2008 agenda was composed of 28 projects that covered a broad range of new and ongoing, state-of-the-art, energy storage and power electronics technologies, including updates on the collaborations among DOE/ESPE, CEC in California, and NYSERDA in New York.

Highlights of the meeting are available online; and all 28 project presentations can be viewed in their entirety on the DOE/ESS web site: http://www.sandia.gov/ess/.

Information about EESAT 2009 (Oct. 4-7) is also available at http://www.sandia.gov/eesat/



NEWS

DOEDraft Funding Opportunity Announcement Issued for Storage

On behalf of the DOE Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, and in support of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has issued a Draft Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “Smart Grid Demonstrations,” which contains an energy storage topic.

The subject FOA includes three topical areas of interest: Regional Smart Grid Demonstrations, Utility-Scale Energy Storage Demonstrations, and Regional Synchrophasor Demonstrations.

Five sub-topics in the announcement concern funding for energy storage:

  1. Battery Storage for Utility Load Shifting or for Wind Farm Diurnal Operations and Ramping Control
  2. Frequency Regulation Ancillary Services
  3. Distributed Energy Storage for Grid Support
  4. Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES)
  5. Demonstration of Promising Energy Storage Technologies

DOE Press Release
FOA

DOEDOE/ESS Soliciting Bids for SBIR Projects in Energy Storage & Power Electronics

The DOE/ESS Research Program, under the guidance of Dr. Imre Gyuk at DOE, seeks bids for four SBIR projects in Energy Storage & Power Electronics. The two topics covering the solicitations are:

  1. Solid State Electrolyte Developement For Advanced Energy Storage Devices (SBIR 08, Topic 6 a,b).
  2. Advanced Energy Storage and Power Electronic Systems (SBIR 08, Topic 29 a,b)

Solicitations

DOEStimulus Package to Contain Energy Storage Topic

In support of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) intends to issue, on behalf of the DOE Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “Smart Grid Demonstration,” which will contain an energy storage topic.

The subject FOA will include three topical areas of interest: Regional Smart Grid Demonstrations, Utility-Scale Energy Storage Demonstrations, and Regional Synchrophasor Demonstrations.

The solicitation, with details for available funding, will be published soon. Look for it on this web site.

New York Power Authority Logo DOE logo
NaS Storage System Successfully Installed by NYPA & LI Bus

As part of the Joint NYSERDA/DOE Energy Storage Initiative, the NYPA (New York Power Authority) has announced the successful installation of a sodium sulfur battery energy system at MTA LI Bus in Garden City, NY.

The project, located at a natural gas refueling station for 220 buses, will demonstrate the ability of a NaS battery energy storage system to enhance the reliability of the Long Island Power Authority grid by shifting load from on-peak to off-peak.

Press Release

DOE logo
DOE Electricity Advisory Committee Submits Storage Report

Early in 2008 the US DOE established the Electricity Advisory Committee in accordance with Congressional directives. The Committee is to provide counsel to the Department on long-range planning and priorities for the modernization of the Nation’s electricity delivery infrastructure.

The Committee, representing a broad cross-section of experts in the electric power delivery arena, including representatives from industry, academia, and state government has recently released its initial report: “Bottling Electricity: Storage as a Strategic Tool for Managing Variability and Capacity Concerns in the Modern Grid.” The report recommends policies that DOE should consider as it develops and implements an energy storage technologies program, as authorized by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

DOE Press Release

ORNL logo SNL logo DOE logo
Comments Requested

DOE seeks comments on the newly released draft of the Power Electronics and Development Program Planning Document.

Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, Power Electronics research and Development, Program Planning Document"The electric grid is a complex system that has been built over the last century as demand for power has grown and now has more than 180,000 miles of transmission lines, 14,000 transmission substations, and more than 100 million distributed loads. There are over 3,000 electric utilities involved with the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. This system is the backbone of the nation’s economy, and it is imperative that the electric delivery system is modernized to meet the nation’s energy future...

To revolutionize the grid, power flow control and energy storage needs to be achieved – however, there are many barriers to realizing this vision. Advances in power electronics devices and modules, including materials development, high temperature packaging, and control systems are needed to increase their reliability and efficiency while at the same time decreasing their installation and operating costs."


View complete document
(PDF 2.37MB) | Provide comments

NaS Battery featured in USA TODAY

An article entitled "New Battery packs powerful punch" by Paul Davidson appeared in the July 4th issue of USA TODAY. The piece describes the Sodium Sulfur battery system and relates two recent applications in the US. A 1.2 MW battery in Charleston, WV provides peak shaving and substation upgrade deferral. A similar battery is being installed by NYPA at a Long Island bus depot where night time electricity is stored to be used during peak periods for compression of natural gas. The article also points out the importance of energy storage for integration of renewable resources. The article closes with a quote by Dr. Imre Gyuk: "We would like to see storage ubiquitous"!

SNL logoAISES logo Power Electronics Manager receives AISES Award

Dr. Stan Atcitty, power electronics program manager at Sandia, received the 2007 Technical Excellence Award, of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES). He was cited for "his technical accomplishments, his personal leadership qualities, and contributions to the nation's energy security challenges". Dr. Atcitty is an internationally recognized expert in the area of power conversion systems research and development and the system-level performance of electrochemical capacitors. He also supervised work that won DOE's Energy Storage and Power Electronics program two prestigious R&D 100 awards.

AEP Installs NaS Battery at WV Substation

aepAmerican Electric Power commissioned a 7.2MWh sodium sulfur battery for peak shaving at a distribution substation in Charleston, WV in July 2006. This is the first U.S. commercial application of a large-scale, advanced storage system on a distribution grid. The facility is expected to defer the need for a substation upgrade by six to seven years. AEP's partners for the $5M project are NGK and S&C Electric. DOE's Energy Storage Program has funded the generic system design, an essential component of the endeavor.(AEP Press release). As of December 2007, the system has performed exactly as expected.

AEP to Deploy Additional Large-scale Batteries on Distribution Grid

aepBased on the success of their first 1.2 MW battery, AEP has announced the purchase of three new NAS batteries totaling 6 MW. Batteries will be used for substation and distribution support as well as to offset intermittent wind generation. AEP plans to deploy 25 MW of storage by the end of the decade and an ambitious 1000 MW by 2020. Besides NAS batteries, this may include flow batteries, pumped hydro, and other advanced storage technologies. (AEP Press release).