Cost-effectiveness model development for energy storage devices in rapid transit systems. Final report, March-September 1980

The purpose of this study was to develop a cost-effectiveness model which could assess the return on investment (ROI) obtained when energy storage devices or regenerative substations are applied to real transit properties with regenerating trains. The storage devices can either be flywheels or batteries and can be placed off-board or on-board. To complete development of this model, an analysis of the range of capital and operating costs for various energy storage systems was conducted. The model takes into account the initial cost of the system, savings per year, costs incurred, energy and inflation escalators, and the life of the asset. This report provides user and programmer instructions, including input data formats, program computation methods, program output descriptions and examples, and a description of the costs and methodology employed. The conclusions reached as a result of this study are that: (1) of the five energy storage systems studied, all are technologically feasible and the technology exists today to implement any of these systems immediately and (2) with advances in technology, new energy storage systems may be developed and they should be analyzed in the same manner as these systems were, including an ROI analysis using the computer model developed inmore » this study.« less