Dive Brief:
- A new report from Navigant Research predicts rapid growth in the global market for advanced batteries for critical infrastructure, with analysts expecting it to rise from 262.3 MW last year to 9.6 GW by 2027.
- The firm says a big chunk of the growth will be driven by the uninterruptable power supply (UPS) segment, which could reach 4.8 GW by 2027.
- The report is focused on batteries, which are capable of helping customers manage demand charges as well as providing services to utilities and markets.
Dive Insight:
A new report from Navigant sounds the alarm for commercial and industrial customers who simply cannot afford to lose power: there may just be one solution.
"With society’s high reliance on electricity and power, it is not a question of if a failure will happen but when," Navigant says in its analysis. "It is essential for commercial facility managers to prepare a way to provide a stable electricity supply that allows operations to continue in the event of a total power failure."
To balance financial losses, Navigant says customers are looking to advanced batteries and distributed energy storage system technology to do double duty. In addition to providing uninterruptible power, they can also provide grid ancillary services to utilities and competitive markets, along with helping companies manage demand changes.
"These [distributed energy storage systems] with critical power-providing capabilities are poised to mitigate the effect of electrical service outages for mission critical facility operations," Navigant said.
The report does not cover standalone advanced batteries without these capabilities.
Navigant said it identified several qualifying characteristics of advanced batteries that make them "ideal candidates for critical power needs" and which will "enable the rapid growth of [advanced batteries for critical infrastructure] over the next decade." They include:
- Fast startup times, relative to fossil fuel generators
- Silent, emissions free, and largely able to be housed easier than fossil fuel generators
- Able to be recharged with renewables everyday, unlike finite fuels, "further increas[ing] system resiliency."
Battery use cases have moved far beyond simple backup power. In addition to grid services and demand response, they are now being considered as a challenge to gas peaker plants.
Wood Mackenzie projects energy storage could threaten up to 6.4 GW of peaking capacity needs by 2026, even with conservative projections of 6% to 8% annual energy storage cost decreases.
