PNNL

Abstract

Current trends in the modern grid are leading to the integration of energy storage technologies to help incorporate more variable renewable energy sources into the grid. This paper analyzed the operation of a pumped thermal energy storage (PTES) system under the grid services of energy arbitrage, regulation services, spinning and non-spinning reserve, resource adequacy, and a combination of them all. Each revenue stream was setup into an optimization problem and solved to find which revenue generating technique would maximize the expected revenue. Optimization results demonstrated the superiority of the combined revenue stream. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine the revenue generating capability of a PTES system with different power transfer limits and energy capacities. With a further consideration of the PTES cost, we found that the power transfer limit had a greater impact over the energy capacity on the expected maximum revenue. This analysis could help determine the optimal sizing ratio of the energy capacity and power transfer limit for a future PTES system.