The Economics of Energy Storage in 14 Deregulated Power Markets

In a regulated market large scale storage of electrical energy, for example by pumped storage, time shifts the generation of power and has been used to defer generation investment. In a deregulated market power storage, when used for energy rather than as a source of spinning or standby reserve or frequency control, is a simple economic proposition: power is purchased during periods of low price and regenerated and resold during period s of high price . In this study historical diurnal price pattern s in 14 deregulated markets are analyzed to give an initial prediction of the economic incentive for energy storage. We rank the 14 markets based on available revenue and potential return on investment: the incentive to store energy varies significantly between markets. The differences between markets arise because of different diurnal pattern s of power price. Diurnal price patterns in turn reflect a comp lex set of factors in a market , including generation mix , market design and participant behaviours.