Battery Energy Storage Development is a Win for Utilities

While utility-scale storage capacity for renewables such as wind, solar and batteries is increasing steadily, utilities are historically apprehensive when it comes to implementing these  technologies, particularly with consideration to the associated infrastructure update demands and costs. 

Although it’s important to plan for the scale of infrastructure transformation required to sustain the clean energy transition and the path forward may appear daunting, the benefits outweigh the challenges. States like Texas are already experiencing fast and significant improvements in grid reliability with the adoption of renewable solutions like battery energy storage systems (BESS), and more communities across the country are initiating processes to reap these benefits.

Grid unreliability’s impacts cannot be understated, as 1 in 4 households in the U.S. were without power at least once in the year leading up to a 2023 American Housing Survey, and 70% experienced an outage lasting 6 or more hours. Outages and instability can result in negative impacts on productivity, health, and safety in many cases, and they also strain utilities’ workforces and resources. 

Renewables are a worthy investment to drive the energy transition forward, improve processes and business success for utilities and create a more reliable power grid for citizens across the country.

BESS are proven to improve grid stability and reduce load burdens

Like most renewables, BESSs provide a significant value proposition for communities dependent on energy resources and sustainability efforts for the planet, but they also offer proven benefits for utility companies. 

BESS technologies are evolving to accommodate long-duration storage needs to take the load off of utilities during peak hours. This improves grid reliability by reducing the risk of blackouts, taking the pressure off of power companies and lessening the challenges presented by load burdens associated with high power demands.

Texas and California alone were projected to account for 82% of the new U.S. battery storage capacity in 2024. The Electricity Reliability Council of Texas found the state has benefited from BESS at night when solar and wind production decreases, and its likelihood of resorting to controlled rolling outages during peak summer heat this year is down to 1% from last year’s 12%. California is also rapidly expanding BESS adoption statewide. Since 2019, the state has increased its battery energy storage capacity by 1,944%. This commitment to investment in BESS highlights the potential lying in the technology to benefit broader communities.

Moreover, other states are not far behind. New York recently announced its first bulk energy storage solicitation, with more GW-scale solicitations from New Jersey to follow very shortly. Meanwhile, U.S. utility-scale battery storage as a whole increased 66% in 2024 and is continuing to grow.

While this transition has been promising, there are some barriers to adoption slowing additional progress. Many forms of BESS face flammability challenges; a string of fires at lithium-ion facilities, particularly in California, Arizona, and New York, have led to safety concerns and resistance to further adoption.

The future of BESS in organic flow batteries 

Organic, water-based flow batteries hold potential in addressing many of the concerns associated with other BESS technologies. 

They have notable benefits in fire safety, as the battery reactants are dissolved in water and used as a solution making them completely nonflammable. This makes them safe to use close to densely populated locations where lithium ion systems are meeting resistance and even facing moratoriums due to fire risk. 

Other advantages of flow batteries lie in their low levelized cost of storage (LCOS). The DOE reported last year that flow batteries with non-vanadium chemistries were the only non-geologically constrained technology to achieve a lower LCOS than lithium-ion batteries. And even though flow batteries are typically thought of as a primarily long-duration energy storage (LDES) technology, their lifetime is typically independent of cycle number, cycle depth, or cycle rate, unlike lithium-ion batteries. This makes flow batteries ideal for short-duration applications where the battery is expected to be cycled multiple times a day and which would result in an unacceptably short lifetime for lithium-ion batteries.

Organic flow batteries’ energy density is also a considerable benefit, as they can reach 3-4x higher energy density than lithium-ion batteries on a land area basis if used in a large tank form factor. This makes them ideal for urban or suburban areas where land space and non-flammability are highly important. 

Elsewhere, these flow batteries present a great opportunity for tank farms to repurpose underutilized capacity for electrical energy storage. For developers, being able to leverage existing infrastructure that is designed for holding large volumes of chemicals presents attractive time and cost savings related to installation and civil works, beyond just the battery capital cost. Select organic flow batteries are chemically compatible with carbon steel tanks unlike vanadium redox flow batteries due to the strongly acidic, corrosive nature of vanadium electrolytes. While not typically viewed as essential parts of electrical transmission and distribution infrastructure at present, tank farms may soon become important locations on the grid.

Organic low batteries can enable grid-scale BESSs in locations where lithium-ion batteries often face obstacles. Their potential for use in highly-populated urban areas and to utilize tank farms due to their safety benefits and space-conscious structures set them apart from other historically popular solutions.

While adopting any new innovation is a journey that necessitates the investment of resources, it’s important that the T&D industry and the communities they support understand the potential lying in flow battery technology to constitute a large portion of grid energy storage in the future.