Feasibility analysis of storage systems in wind plants — an Italian application

The present work aims to evaluate, from both technical and economical point of view, the employment of storage systems for time shifting applications in two different medium scale wind turbines actually operating in Apulia. In fact, storage technologies are currently considered the most reliable way to sensibly increase the penetration of renewable sources into the energy market, balancing their intrinsic variability. On this matter, this work analyses the technical and economical effects of introducing an electrochemical storage system to mitigate the loss of revenues caused by a curtailment in the power output of the wind turbine, in order to avoid grid congestions. The analysis shows that there is no economic return for storage systems in peak shaving applications actually, as the use of batteries just to time-shift energy does not guarantee sufficient remunerations. The key for a massive integration of storage systems with renewable energy could be guaranteed by their utilisation for grid support and stabilisation, opening the ancillary services market also to renewables rather than conventional plants.